Sunday, January 25, 2009

The letters ayin and tsade

Today with the help of a tree-like image of Psalm 1 and a Morris print of the tree of life, I introduced 'tree' as a word made from the two oddest letters of the Hebrew alef-bet. The tree of life is in Genesis 2:9, Psalm 1:1-3 and Revelation 22:2 - beginning, middle and end of the Bible. Leaves specially in the last two sections. I read them the psalms and had spelled out עֵץ הַחַיִּים [etz hahayim] from Genesis 2:9 on the blocks. It was a full 5 minutes.
כְּעֵץ שָׁתוּל עַל־פַּלְגֵי מָיִם
Like a tree transplanted by streams of water
The children stretching their arms and fingers had no trouble imagining themselves as trees.

Curiously, the first response to the colours in the image here was PH. I didn't know I had a 10 year old chemist in the class. (I think the message is - use every bit of your knowledge for joy because the children see right through you.)

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