Kitah Zayin

This week in Kitah Zayin we continued the Moving Traditions curriculum with the session: Looking Good, Feeling Good

This session examines the specific expectations for young men and women about what they wear. We examined the messages they receive from friends, family and community about how they should look on special occasions. We also considered how gender norms might influence what they might choose to wear during their b’nai mitzvah ceremony and party.

We used group discussion, group activities, the study of Jewish texts, to explore different ways of how we express gender in our society and what is expected of us as compared to how we want to present ourselves to the world. There is a lot of Jewish wisdom around these topics which was incorporated into the lesson.

We wrapped up the evening with visual tefillah (prayer) with lots of singing and ruach (spirit). Visual tefillah is a great tool because the prayers are up on the screen, so the students do not have to use the prayer book.

We are having a great time. Thanks for lending us your children!

Stacy Shapiro and Betsy Deckert