Whole School Tu B'Shvat 5: Tu B'Shvat and Israeli Food

Grades: 5-6      The Whole-School Holiday lessons make up a spiral curriculum, in which each lesson focuses on a different aspect of Jewish holiday, value, or key subject. With some exceptions, Whole School Holiday lessons are built around a matrix that allows students to have an unique experience each year.

• Grade 1–2: Tu B'Shvat Celebrations
• Grade 2–3: The Four High Holidays
• Grade 3–4: Honi The Circle Maker
• Grade 4–5: Tree Blessings
• Grade 5–6: Tu B'Shvat Food
• Grade 6–7: Tu B'Shvat Seder
• Grade 7–8: A Day in the Life of a Verse
• Teacher's Guide

Lesson five highlights Tu B'Shvat food from Israel. This lesson uses a piece of Midrash to introduce a series of Tu B'Shvat recipes. Midrash: “to study, to seek out or to investigate.” Midrashim are a compilation of commentaries written by the Rabbis of the Talmud elaborating on incidents in the Bible and filling in missing pieces of Jewish texts. Today some people come up with their own midrashim to help explain things in the texts. In this activity the students will read how everything God created for the world, God also created in humans.