Message from Rabbi Yamin Levy, LIHA Rabbi

Parashat HaChodesh

Shalom My Dear Friends,

Three Torahs this Shabbath! One for the Perasha

of the week, one for Rosh Chodesh and one for

Shabbath HaChodesh.

One cannot be an atheist in the springtime. I

find that the very season in which we celebrate the

colorful and meaningful holiday of Pesach lends

itself to a spiritual awakening. Spring is the

rebirth of nature and with it is reborn our faith and

our spirit. It is as if Hashem is recreating the

world for us anew. The blooming flowers, the

chirping birds, the beautiful sunbeams all come

together and shout: Ma Rabu Ma’asecha Hashem,

how wonderful are your creations Hashem!

The name of the holiday, Pesach, comes from the

biblical formulation which describes G-d passing

over the houses of the Jewish people in Egypt as

an act of protection and providence. The very

name suggests that G-d wants mankind to be free.

G-d abhors suffering and hears the cries of those

in need. Pesach is the holiday that reminds us to

soften our hearts with compassion for those who

cannot fend for themselves.

The student of the Torah knows that Hashem’s

signature is: “I am the Lord who took you out of

Egypt, out of the house of bondage”. In other

words Hashem reveals his glory as the G-d of

Freedom. Pesach renews our faith in the coming

of a day when all of mankind will be free from the

shackles of tyranny and will see the truth and

beauty in our Torah.

A few years ago one of my children noted how

Pesach which is the holiday of freedom imposes

upon us the most restrictions. It is the holiday in

which we are not free to eat what we want, we

need to use new dishes and rid our homes of

Hametz. It is the holiday that requires of us the

most discipline. Interesting how freedom is

intimately related to obedience of law and

tradition.

The truth is my dear friends, Pesach teaches us the

most important lesson of all. We live in the freest

country in the world and yet so many are held in

bondage by their prejudice, their greed, their

habits and even their success. Pesach calls upon us

to exercise our inner discipline and truly learn to

be free.

Chag Sameach

Sharyn Blaustein Volume 22

Principal Issue 22

April 8, 2016

Adar11 29, 5776

Rabbi Yamin Levy

LIHA Rabbi

Please visit our website www.lihagn.org for the FULL newsletter in color!

Parashat Tazria

Shabbat Candle Lighting time is at 7:13 p.m. Havdalah time is at 8:19 p.m.

THE VOICE OF OUR CHILDREN A WEEKLY PUBLICATION

LIHA Registration forms for

2016-2017 School year have been

sent home & are also on our

website. The families who apply

for scholarships need to apply

on the SSS website before the deadline.

Reminder

April 13th thru 15th – Grades 3 thru 5 NYS Math State Test

April 20th thru May 1st – Passover No School

Benjamin Azzizadeh

Malka Partovi

Daniel Simhai

Orion Yazdanpaneh

Ethan Ashir

Adiella Babayev

Shirah Misaghi

Orah Mahgerefteh

Avraham Rismany

Doron Rismany

Benjamin Tehrani

Ornella Amsellem

Take A Look At LIHA

Toddler This week we are going over our Passover Hagaddah. The kids are learning the order of the Seder, the story of Moshe in the basket and Passover songs. Shabbat Shalom!

Nursery

Our class is very busy with the holiday of Pesach. The children are working very hard on their Hagadoth and learning the traditions and customs of the Seder. In addition, the children enjoy acting out the Pesach story and pretending to be Moshe, King Pharoah, the Jewish Slaves, Yocheved (Moshe’s mother), Miriam (Moshe’s sister) and Batya (King Pharoah’s daughter). Some of our books of the week were, “What is Passover Seder” and “The Ten Plagues of Egypt”. Our Shabbat Ima & Abba were Maytal & Yosef

Pre K

This week we continued working on our very own Haggadah. Frogs are jumping everywhere, 4 cups of wine are painted and we made matzah with Lego boards! The Jewish people built pyramids in Egypt so we built pyramids in the block area and on a paper in our Haggadah.

We also learned about the beautiful Seder plate, , and made a wooden one to hold the different

foods. We can't wait to bring everything home before Pesach.

The following

parents have

donated a book

to the LIHA

Library in honor

of their

children’s

birthday…

Mr. & Mrs.

Marc Dorwitt

for Noach’s

birthday

Mr. & Mrs.

Ashir Pirouzian

for Yael’s

birthday

Mr. David

Soleimani & Ms.

Shula Ograd for

Jordana’s birthday

Kindergarten English

We enjoyed learning about different weather for science. The children were so interested in tornados and enjoyed videos about tornados on the smart board! We learned that in, on, under, over and by are prepositions. Our amazing words are haul, trucker, cab, trailer, steering wheel and headlights as we enjoyed reading, “Trucks Roll”. In math we completed numbers above 20 and the children are experts at counting by tens to 100!! Shabbat Shalom and stay warm!

Kindergarten Hebrew

It has been a very busy week!! Pesach keeps us busy not just at home!! But at school very much so! Too! We are busy learning songs for Pesach, going through Hagadas and making our own Hagadas too. We painted our Seder plates " " and they look amazing!!!

We have been revising our Alef- Bet letters with the תודוקנ that we have learned so far. Parashat Tazria, again emphasis on NO SPEAKING LASHON HARA and Brit Mila for the baby boys. We are entering new month on Shabbat! Rosh Chodesh Nissan Tov to all of you. This week's Shabbat were; Sarah &

Eitan.

1st

Grade English

This week the first grade had a great time reading and listening to many different poems. April is National Poetry month. We will be learning to write our own poetry. In math we are learning how to read bar graphs and picture graphs. The students are doing well with this unit.

1st Grade Hebrew – ‘

This week we started working on our own (Haggadah). We learned the steps of the

Seder night the of and we practiced reading from the . Vocabulary words

related to the season (spring). In parashat we learned about the mitzvah of doing

when the baby is eight day old. !

2nd

Grade English

2nd grade had another good week. They learned how to measure different items in centimeters and will have a math test on Wednesday. We learned about firefighters and how important they are, and continue to work on improving reading and writing skills. Please make sure your children are reading every night and filling out their reading logs. Have a great weekend. Shabbat Shalom!

2nd

Grade Hebrew

We learned about the upcoming holiday, Pesach, its different names, their meanings, and all about the Seder. We talked about what we have to do in order to get ready for the holiday. We finished the week learning about Parashat Tazria. It was about the laws of Tumah V’taharah, ritual impurity and purity. Shabbat Shalom & Hodesh Tov

3rd

Grade English

This week the third grade took the New York State English Language Arts test. The students really worked hard preparing for this test. I'm very proud of them!

3rd

Grade Hebrew

We are learning about the holiday of Pesach. We are practicing and translating the beginning of the Haggadah. We practiced our vocabulary words and also learned new ones. We finished the week learning Parashat Tazria. In our learning of middos we traveled in the United States, where we learned about chessed. Working on chessed means focusing on what would be best for others. Shabbat Shalom and Hodesh Tov.

4th

Grade English

The 4th grade has just finished taking the 2016 Common Core Language Arts Test.

They practiced very hard for them, but they’re relieved it’s over. Have a great weekend 4th graders. You’ve earned it!

4th

Grade Hebrew

In fourth grade we are totally immersed in our Passover studies. We learned about the preparations for the holiday and the story of the Israelites in Egypt from slavery to freedom. Next week we will learn all about the Seder.

5th

Grade English

5th grade had a busy week. They took the NYS ELA exams this week and will take the NYS Math assessments beginning next Wednesday. Please have your child get a good night's sleep and come prepared with at least 3 sharpened No. 2 pencils. The class started reading Percy Jackson, “The Lightning Thief”. Please make sure your children continue reading for 30 minutes nightly. Have a great weekend. Shabbat Shalom!

5th

Grade Hebrew

We are learning about Pesach and all the Halachot and dinim. We are

reading and translating the “Hagada” of Pesach. The class has been learning

all the songs in the Hagada. In Chumach we learned Parashat “Bo”

which spoke about Passover and Yesiat Mitrayim.