Preparing for Chanukah

Preparing for Chanukah

This week we were super excited to begin learning about the special holiday, Chanukah.

With the help of a globe we traveled all the way to Israel. 

To learned how many many years ago, the Jewish people lived in Israel.

 Right in the center of Israel, in the city of Jerusalem, there was a very important building, the Beit Hamikdash.

It was here that the Jews would come to pray and thank Hashem for all the good things they had.

Some families lived in the cities, and some lived in the farms were they grew lots of different special crops.

One of them was the Olive trees where the people in Israel didn't only eat Olives, they also squeezed them to extract golden tasty Oil. The oil was made by hand and it took a lot of effort.

Morah brought in a can of Olives and she squeezed some to make Oil.

Some of us even got a chance to taste some Olives. 

Very special people called the Kohanim worked and took care of the Beit Hamikdash. One of the mitzvot for a Kohen was to kindle the golden Menorah each night.

The Menorah was a large lamp made out of solid gold. Extending out from the base was a middle branch, with three branches on either side. Seven branches in all.

They lit the Menorah with Olive oil. On top of each branch sat a little cup to hold the Olive oil that would burn the flame. Each cup was enough for one night.

The middle branch was the special helper that lit the Menorah was called a Shamash. 

The Jews were happy to live in the land of  Israel, proud to have the Beit Hamikdash, proud to light the Menorah, and proud to do the Mitzvot of Hashem.

    We then got to work on making our very own Menorahs.

We glued little squares of tissue paper on the base of our Menorahs.