Tag Archives: Shavuot

Shavuot: Edible Mt. Sinai

Posted on 06/02/2011 by | 4 Comments

This article supplements my Kveller.com piece about making Shavuot Mt. Sinai Muffins with kids.

And hey, the Jerusalem Post picked it up on JPost Weekly Schmooze!

Mt. Sinai Muffin, Jordan almond Tablets, coconut grass, Twizzler slice flowers and a few Lego Israelites

Edible Crafts are one of my favorite ways to prepare for and celebrate a holiday with kids. Shavuot has built-in festive foods like cheesecake and blintzes and all things dairy—great things to make with children. But, they take time. Of course, traditional baking and mixing and whatnot with kids are core identity-building components. No argument here. But what if you are short on time, yet want to make something Jewish, thematic, edible, fun and fast?

Below are edible options both fast and slow, plus a Suggested Reading List for Shavout-y picture books.

FAST: The sweetest thing about Mt. Sinai Muffins is how versatile they can be: homemade or storebought, regular or miniature, cupcakes or muffins.

And you can decorate them as plain or fancy as you wish.  See the Kveller article for tips about making your mountains grassy or rocky or snowy, and for repurposing tiny edibles as stone Tablets. Keep the relative sizes of the mountain and the Tablets in mind.

Suggestions for edible Ten Commandment Tablets

My favorites are the Jordan almonds with the first ten letters of the Hebrew alphabet, each of which represents one of the Ten Commandments. Continue reading →

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Shavuot Origami for Kids: Ten Commandments

Posted on 05/29/2011 by | 6 Comments

Easy Ten Commandments Origami for Shavuot

This simple paper-folding craft is a fun way to prepare for and celebrate Shavuot, the holiday that commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments, and by extension the whole Torah.

Ten Commandments Origami

With your help, even a young child can fold and decorate the “Tablets.” The finished product can stand up on a table or lie flat as a card.

The PDF template below has a “granite”  background and two rows of Hebrew letters that will end up in the right place when folded. What’s with the letters? A common visual representation of the Ten Commandments uses the first ten letters of the Hebrew alphabet to symbolize the mitzvot (commandments). There’s a vertical row of five letters on each tablet, each one serving its ancient double-time as a number: aleph for one, bet for two, gimmel for three, and so on.

What exactly are the Ten Commandments? Well, here in the Bible Belt they are yard art (painted limestone, usually) and driveway signage (corrugated fiberglass), but they sure won’t be in Hebrew. No, really, see this link at MyJewishLearning or take a look at the Suggested Picture Book list below. If you and your child read about the Ten Commandments before you start crafting, you’ll create a more meaningful context.

Just print the template, fold as directed, and let your child fill the outlined Hebrew letters with colored pencil, crayon or marker. After you fold the first one, you’ll be better able to help your child with the next. Mail one to Bubbie, if you are lucky enough to have a Bubbie. I already sent one to ours, and she, ever the educator, said it needed pictorial representations of each mitzvot. However, I leave it to you to come up with o.5″ icons that convey “do not murder” and so on. My job is done.

Printing hint: To avoid a white border around your granite background, program your printer borderless,  bleed to edge, no page scaling, or customize with zero margins.  If border-avoidance gives you fits, download PDF2, which has letters only (no background).

Feel free to skip the template and let your child draw or rubber-stamp the Hebrew letters. But first, make plain paper look stony by laying it on a flat, textured surface (like a sidewalk or a piece of sandpaper) and do an unwrapped-crayon rubbing. Continue reading →

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Scheduling Shavuot

Posted on 05/27/2009 by | Leave a comment

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For weeks I’ve had two flyers up on the fridge. The Toddler keeps rearranging them with antique wooden fruit magnets, so I’ve had many opportunities to notice them and actually read what they say. But what I failed to see until yesterday was that they advertise Must Attend Events scheduled for the same day, same time: the beginning of Shavuot.

One is an advertisement for Shavuot services at our synagogue—a Tikkun Leil, or all-night study session—which includes my husband in the lineup. He is giving a lecture called “A Mountain Held Over Our Heads: On the Joyful Difficulty of Revelation?” The question mark is courtesy of the nice man who printed the flyer, and who probably didn’t understand the title, thought he needed confirmation, and forgot to get it. Continue reading →

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Shavuot links for families

Posted on 05/19/2009 by | Leave a comment

     Shavuot starts the evening of May 28. It’s a two-dayer here in the Diaspora, for those of us who do the extended versions of holidays. (Now is the time I start combing the web for gluten-free blintz recipes…..)
     Today, I offer the start of the Shavuot link list on www.JewishEveryday.com. If you have any links to add, please leave a comment and I’ll wedge them in.
     Again, I cannot help but notice that my own denomination, Conservative Judaism, is a bit under-represented. Why is it that other folks have better graphics and sites, generally speaking? I know the uscj, the mother ship of us Conservos, is having its own tsouris at the moment, but I do wish they’d hire somebody web savvy to redesign everything and give us more PDFs of how-tos. Chabad, for example (with whom I have severe moshiach issues) leave us in the digital dust. I am hoping someone will prove me wrong by sharing some kicking conservative links.

Shavuot Resources:

• (Best site to start with):  My Jewish Learning.com, Shavuot

• A Shavuot Primer (UJC)

• URJ (Union for Reform Judaism) Shavuot Parent Pages

  1. • “Best of the Web” Shavuot Links from the Jewish Agency for Israel

  2. •  Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, Shavuot

  3. •  Ima on and off the Bimah: last year’s blog entry about Shavuot

 

Sites for kids and parents together:

 

My Jewish Learning.com: Shavuot resources for kids

 

NSW Board of Jewish Education: BJE Academy

    What is Shavuot, The 3 Pilgrim Festivals, Cool Things to Do for Shavuot, Shavuot Links

 

Akhlah.com: Traditions, Commandments, Vocabulary, Crafts

 

Torah Tots: All About Shavuot, the Story of Rurth, Fun & Games, Coloring Pages,
     Greeting Cards, Holiday Recipes

 

Chabad.org: Shavuot resources for children

 

Teacher Planet: Shavuot Resources (activities, crafts, links)

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