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A Message from Our Menahel Dear Parents,

( ד,ב"ר פ"ב" )זה גלות יון, חושך”

The מדרש tells us that when the תורה says:

והארץ היתה תוהו ובוהו וחושך על פני תהום

It is being מרמז (hinting) to us all of the גליות (exiles) that כלל ישראל will have to endure.

, ובוהו זה גלות מדי, תוהו זה גלות בבל”

וחושך זה גלות יון, על פני תהום זה גלות אדום.“

Rav Shimshon Pincus ל"זצ, , says that one can derive from the previous ל "חז that only גלות יון was coined חשך " “ as opposed to the other גליות during which בני ישראל were in a מצב of אור .

This means that in each of the גליות there was a clarity where the Jews knew who they were. When י“בנ ,was carrying out his evil actions נבוכדנצר knew who they were. When the Nazis ש "ימ would whip a Jew and the Jew would hide under the table to es-cape, he would think to himself “Thank G-d I’m the one under the table and not the wicked person try-ing to do harm.” גלות יון, on the other hand, is referred to as חשך (darkness). “Why חשך?” one may ask, the תורה says “יון .”יפת אלקים ליפת, who descends from ,יפת, was given the gift of beauty, whether it is in its script or their appreciation of טבע

(nature). Many great philosophers were amongst the Greek nation. יון had a distinct goal not to destroy י“בנ physically but rather spiritually attempting to distract us from true beauty. If some-one did not achieve the physical strength of a pow-erful warrior he wasn’t worth anything. Beauty was defined purely by its natural outward features and not by who the person really was in his נשמה.

The concept of low self esteem began in the days of

If you didn’t make it to the Olympics, you were .יון nothing. The חשמונאים fought this head on. The נס

of חנוכה teaches us that if one really desires, he can reach great heights, as גבורים fell into the hands of If the .מעטים in the hands of רבים and חלשים

in Hashem , they בטחון and אמונה have the חלשים can rise above their physical status. So too, if one really wants to achieve greatness in תפילה ,תורה and יראת שמים, even in our דור, when the חשך seems to be overtaking the אור, he can!

teaches us that putting one’s self down and חנוכהsaying “I can’t learn a דף גמרא or a פסוק חומש and even if I do, I will forget it anyway”, or “My ability is too weak to become a “תלמיד חכם or “How can I do ;for someone if I am missing so much myself חסדthis is חשך! This is what the נס of חנוכה is about. Despite the tiny drop of oil they found, an abun-dance of light was able to eminate from it.

Hashem believes in each of one of us. We can each overcome what seems to us as powerful influences that distract us from עבודת ה‘ and see how great people come from those who seem to have little potential. Greatness is defined by ה“הקב according to the amount of effort that is put in. We see that .רבים achieved much more than the מעטים

If we realize how great we could become despite our shortcomings, we have succeeded in igniting light in the tremendous חשך of our נשמה and spreading light in the tremendous חשך we are battling (whatever battle it may be).

May we be זוכה to the אור של משיח speedily and in our days.

A Freilichin Chanukah!

CALENDAR

Chanukah Vacation

Friday December 7–

Monday December 10

NO SESSIONS

*********

Tuesday December 11-Thursday December 13

4 PM Dismissal

Nursery-8th grade

No Study Hall

*********

Friday December 14

12:15 PM Dismissal

Nursery-8th grade

*********

December 22

New Parent

Melave Malka

8 PM

*********

December 29

Grandfather-Father-Son

Melave Malka

YBH Raffle Drawing

********* December 30

10 AM start for boys Grades 1-8

YBHighlights Parshas Vayeishev

Hadlakas Neiros:4:11

Havdalah: 5:29

07

I S S U E

Dec 7 2012

GENERAL STUDIES UPDATE

Dear Parents, Chanukah is here, and for some, that means counting gelt! Counting, adding, calculat-ing… a wonderful application of the math skills we are working on at YBH! Over the past few months I have had many con-versations with parents regard-ing our math curriculum. Too easy, too hard, fast, too slow, not enough practice, overkill… I am hearing it all. That is in part due to the fact that math uses a very different part of the brain than the other subjects, which are more language oriented, and the range of skill amongst the children is as broad as their personalities! Over the summer, the teachers and I sat to thoroughly review our math curriculum and to identify our strengths and where we could improve. Our first goal is to provide a program that is stimulating and engaging to all and which will prepare the students for their later math education. We are therefore carefully studying both the national standards and the expectations of the high schools to which our students are headed to guide us in set-ting our objectives. Different than content subjects (science, social studies etc.), math is a skill based subject that builds upon itself – in other words, if you miss a skill, you will be very challenged later on. Our next goal, then, is to create a system for accountability – to guarantee that all students master what they must, in se-quence, without the gaps that lead to future failure forming. Math is notorious for being “hard” for many students, es-pecially in later years and re-

search into why this is so has been very revealing. In many cases, there have been just too many standards identified, which has lead to a surface cov-ering of many without the depth required for true under-standing. Because of so many standards, some educators rely on textbooks to specify what they will teach – even when the gaps exist. Some educators might leave out areas they don't feel comfortable teach-ing, such as statistics, probabil-ity, and data analysis in mathe-matics, because their own knowledge might have a gap! In other cases, teachers are so concerned about keeping a stimulating pace, that they neglect to provide adequate practice and “rote” memoriza-tion opportunities. This seems impressive when the kids are young but has lasting negative effects as the years go on. And so, our third goal is to create a sequence and curriculum that just makes sense!

In making decisions for the math program at YBH, we feel strongly then that the order of content presented in a text-book can not specify our cur-riculum. We are working to introduce a “curriculum spiral” in which topics are taught and mastered, then reviewed each year as more is added. This approach to learning works well, because it allows the stu-dents to truly master basic con-cepts before moving on to more complicated details. Eventually, students amass large amounts of information by stacking new lessons on top of extremely basic concepts. This helps ensure mastery and allows educators to recognize a student's failure to absorb classroom materials before moving on to much more com-plicated ideas. In order to meet the needs of every child, we have begun to differentiate the curriculum by providing enrichment to those who need a faster pace as well as “Math Success” booklets to students who did not master a concept and need individual-ized instruction. Please feel free to reach out to me if you feel your child needs either of these and is not yet receiving it. We are introducing more sophisticated assessment methods to identify the needs of each child, but your input is greatly valued as we develop them! Looking forward to great suc-cess for all of your precious children! Have a great Shabbos and a frelilichen Chanukah! Mrs. Estee Hebel

Parnes Hayom

Learning was dedicated on the following days:

Monday, 19 Kislev (12/3)

In commemoration of the yahrtzeit of

Hirsch Leib ben Yaakov, Great-grandfather of Rina (5G), Chaim (4B), Neima (2G), & Meira (N) Glasser

Sponsored by the Glasser family

Glimpses of our

Boys’

Thanksgiving

Program

LIMUDEI KODESH UPDATE—BOYS MAZAL TOV

To…... Rabbi Noach & Mrs. Esti

Witty

on the engagement of their son

Yehoshua to Tzvivi Lansky (Ateret 5G, Yair 8B)

Dear Parents,

is the bedrock of so הכרת הטוב

many of the מצוות and is a strong

component of our Chanukah

celebration. We owe tremen-

dous הכרת הטוב to Hashem for

saving us from our oppressors

time and again—בימים ההם and

in our time too.

In keeping with the

message of הכרת הטוב I take the

opportunity to thank all the reb-

beim for their effort and creativ-

ity in preparing their talmidim so

well for Chanukah. They have

learned so much in excited an-

ticipation of the exciting Yom

Tov. Next week is sure to bring

exciting experiences both in and

out of yeshiva. I’d also like to

express thanks to the parents in

the YBH family for their encour-

agement and partnership in the

great endeavor of chinuch ha-

banim.

Using experiences within the

broader society in order to de-

rive spiritual lessons is an impor-

tant component of the chinuch

at YBH. Living in a society that

celebrates a legal holiday of

Thanksgiving is a prime opportu-

nity for רוחניות growth in true

YBH fashion. Traditional Thanks-

giving is all about thanking g-d,

so our focus shifts to thanking

Hashem for all the great benefits

regularly he bestows upon us.

Although Thanksgiving is offi-

cially the one legal holiday on

which we are off, you’d never

have known that had you been

here then. Having an ’optional’

day of learning meant that boys

could voluntarily come to partici-

pate and they did so in great

numbers. Over 80% of the ye-

shiva enjoyed a day of learning

filled with great רוח (and extra

bonuses too). What a special

way to say thanks!

Seeking to take the lesson fur-

ther, our boys were challenged

to find a פסוק in ך“תנ that directs

one how to celebrate Thanksgiv-

ing—i.e. how does one express

thanks to Hashem. The entries

were many and even included a

cute one- כי טוב‘ הודו לה —Praise

Hashem for He is good, and

הודו( תרנגול) in modern Hebrew

means Turkey.

Congratulations to the following

finalists for their great selec-

tions:

Eli Amster, Tzviki Negnewitzky,

Akiva Meir Galimidi, Yehuda

Ostrov (4B),

Avi Rybak, Yoni Spivack (5B),

Yitzchak Gavriel Galimidi (6B),

Eitan Zoldan, Moshe Milchman,

Mordechai Rosenthal (7B).

Congratulations to our winners

as selected by the rebbeim of

YBH.

Shimon Khayyat (7B) - אודה ה ‘

I’ll—בכל לבב בסוד ישרי ועדה

thank Hashem with all my heart

among the righteous and within

the entire assembly

Asher Brenner—(8B) ואכלת

על הארץ ‘ ושבעת וברכת את ה

And you will - הטובה אשר נתן לך

eat and be satiated and then you

will bless Hashem for the good

land that He gave you.

Good Shabbos

& a Freilichen Chanukah!

Rabbi Binyomin Perlstein

Many thanks to Rabbi Ari Schonfeld and his 8th graders who went to Belle Harbor to assist with post hurricane clean up. The following letter of grati-tude was received from a resident of Belle Harbor who benefitted from the boys’ efforts:

“We cannot thank you and the boys enough for what you did. You came in just at the point when I was ready to quit doing the work. You made the differ-ence and kept me going. Your positive energy was what I needed. You should continue to do mitzvohs.” May we continue to see nachas from our students’ acts of chessed.

Please remember to claim your clean up tools from the lost & found closet.

Mr. Nagel’s Middle School Social Studies:

The 6th grade boys are in the midst of learning about Ancient Mesopotamia, the birthplace of Avraham Avinu. We have studied the components of what constitutes a civilization,

important inventions and the role that law and written lan-guage played in advancing the civilization. We are about to begin a project which explores the components of language in which boys will be creating their own written languages!

Our 7th graders have started a project on Ancient Rome. The Roman contribution to Western Civilization is an important component of the study of history. As we have been learning essential components of Ancient Rome, we will also introduce a critical concept: viewing the contrasting world views and legacies of Rome in their and Jewish culture. As we are in the midst of the the parshios discussing the birth of the Jewish nation, as well as the role Esav and Yaakov played in the course of human destiny, the boys have been and will continue to view the content they are learning in class through the lenses Chazal set out for us. The 8th graders have been in the midst of studying the migration of Jews to Eastern Europe. The role the Vaad Arba Artzos played in the develop-ment of Ashkenazi Jewry, as well the tragic episodes of expul-sions and Tach V'Tat. However, every seemingly devastating period of Jewish History also comes with renewed hope, in-vigoration, and the furthering of the Jewish mission---an im-portant lesson the boys are truly starting to see reflected in our history.

Rabbi Finkel’s kitah hey:

We are looking forward to finishing משניות מסכת מגילה . Rebbe is happy to see the way the class mastered the מסכת. We are all anticipating the long awaited milestone of Rebbe is sure the class will continue to shteig . התחלת גמרא to all those that finished Level One of the מזל טוב .מחיל אל חיל contest. We are continuing to grow as we move into בני עלייהLevel Two.

Mrs. Silberman’s 1B:

Ever since Hurricane Sandy, Mrs. Silberman’s class has been discussing “wild weather”. After sharing each child’s experi-ences with the hurricane, we talked about how weather should be, based on the 4 seasons. The children drew them-selves enjoying their favorite season and writing about it.

Since we are also learning about graphing in our math book, we created a bar graph in our room to compare the tempera-ture over six days. This theme has worked out beautifully, as it integrated our math with something to which the children

LEAPS Enrichment Program:

We began this week as the older students opened up their Web-Quest and found an urgent message from the Department of BookLand Security for them to "save" their favorite authors, who have been kidnapped by Stolen Ideas Inc. In order to

rescue the author of their choosing, students must discover

details about the author's life, determine where their story ideas come from, uncovering their backgrounds in order to create the plot for a new book which will serve as the ransom to save them from their kidnappers. Students will complete a Venn Diagram, write the plot and create the cover for the new book. They are already at work and may even be the inspiration for new future

novels.

Rabbi Bachrach’s kitah daled: The Race is On! The 4th grade started an exciting way to practice and maintain their קריאה while at the same time becoming fluent in some of the more difficult parts of davening. Every day the boys are given three new lines from Monday and Thursday’s to practice by themselves. After a few minutes of תחנו ןpractice, "The Race Is On!" They read each line to a חברותא in under 15 seconds without making any mistakes. It is very excit-ing to watch the class practicing their קריאה so enthusiastically! Morah Rikki’s Pre-1A: In our morning class, the children have learned the concept of the few winning over the many. The Maccabim vs. the Yevanim or a small flask of oil lasting eight days vs. a large flask of oil un-fit for use. When Hashem is with us, we succeed. This is seen in our hands on Chanukah booklet which depicts the entire story with all its נסים. The yeladim illustrated their own booklets with their original pictures of menorahs, maccabim, yevanim, dreidels, etc. Their water colored puppets, which they cut out by themselves, give a sensory and visual illu-sion as they turn the pages and tell their own story. Their begin-ning reading skills are apparent as they read some of the words from the booklet in Ivrit. שתלכו מחיל אל חיל!

ECD HIGHLIGHTS

The YBH Preschool Marching Band

What incredible marchers our nursery and kindergarten children are! Morah Rikki, our music teacher, spent the last month focusing on percussion instruments. The children learned the names of different percussion instruments. They enjoyed marching around the classroom playing their instruments to the right beat. Listen-ing skills and following directions are important when working together as a group, especially in a band. The children had to listen for when their particular instrument was called and play it at the right time. We are almost ready to join a professional school band!

HAVE A WONDERFUL

SHABBOS & CHANUKAH !

A Peek Into Our

Week: