OK. I'm wrong. What you saw before this is actually lesson zero. It is meant to get you started by showing you how a sample of letters themselves can be identified by the smallest of children as small, large, and three-pronged. That is the visual approach. If you want a kinesthetic approach, you can read about yoga and the aleph bet. If you want a tactile approach, use Deborah's spaghetti structures, or go the the beach and trace letters in the sand. (I need a photo of LJ Shores here!)
The traditional European approach has been to use taste. That's right. Take a three-year old and draw the letters in honey. Have the child lick up the honey. My five-year old just came home with a recipe for "Yummy Aleph Sticks" from Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School's Judaic teacher. They spent enough time testing it in class, that he requested I create a sample at home.
This here is lesson one. Two Hebrew teachers and Rabbi Munk's book laid down the method to me. This is not just an "A to Z/Zed" or "Alpha to Omega" enterprise; this is the inculcation of the character attributes of each letter as they were revealed to Adam Ha-rishon (the first man). We start with unity (aleph), we build upon each attribute until we teach perfection and truth (tav).
aleph א This letter carries a vowel and is considered silent, although word-initially, there is a glottal stop. In its script form, it resembles the Arabic alif ا , but it has an additional "c" shape standing at its right. Interestingly enough, mathematics has adopted the symbol to describe the cardinality of infinite sets.
bet ב
tav ת
aleph = 1 unity
Avraham/Abraham
Noach/Noah
bet = 2 duality
heaven and earth
male and female
tav
prefection and truth
Shin bet tav
Shabat
bet house
beth (soft "T")
The largest Conservative and Reform synagogues in San Diego start with "Bet." What are they named?
Also starts with bet
The daughter of Pharoah, who named and raised Moshe / Moses
The wife of Jacob, who was the mother of Dan and Naphtali
Starts with "tav":
She had a daughter with Yehudah / Judah
Wife of Eisav's son Eliphaz and mother of Amalek obscure
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1 comment:
Ok. So here's the recipe for Morah Perla's Yummy Aleph Sticks.
Get:
2 packages of yeast
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
8 cups flour
2 eggs
Coarse salt (optional)
Do:
Mix yeast, water, and susgar and let stand for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and form dough. Shape the dough into an Aleph. Brush with egg and sprinkle with the coarase salt. Bake for 25 minutes at 350'.
Eat and enjoy!
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