We’re moving right along with the Torah’s “greatest hits” — creation, Adam & Eve, Noah, the patriarchs and matriarchs, etc. This week we focused on Abraham and Sarah, since Saturday’s torah portion was Lech Lecha — a very rich parsha that covers everything from the covenantal relationship with God, to the pain of childlessness. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/torah-portions/parashat-lech-lecha/
For both the Kindergarteners and 1st/2nd graders, I chose lovely picture books written by the same author — Jacqueline Jules — that focused on Abraham’s internal quest to discover the one God — ABRAHAM’S SEARCH FOR GOD — and Sarah’s yearning to share Abraham’s journey and have a child — SARAH LAUGHS.
The Kindergarteners found it as crazy and hysterically joyful as Sarah that she could have a child in old age while the 1st/2nd graders appreciated the analogy between believing the earth was round to believing there was one invisible God when no one else did. Someday, I said, you will make such amazing leaps of faith and logic and change the world!
I took a different approach with the 3rd/4th graders. At the start of the Abraham/Sarah saga, there is a 75 year gap between their introduction and God’s call for them to “go forth to a land I will show you”. What went on during those 75 years? I asked the kids to search their imaginations and come up with a story, no matter how outlandish to flesh it out (apparently, Sarah and Abraham met up with dinosaurs and unicorns). What the kids were doing was MIDRASH — filling in the gaps of an often sparse text, kind of like “fan fiction https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/midrash-101/. I proceeded to show them several books we have on biblical midrash produced by the talmudic rabbis, as well as modern midrash, written by modern writers (and by 3rd and 4th graders). It’s all good.