Birkat Hamazon 1
This lesson introduces students to the unit and encourages them to consider the purpose of Birkat Hamazon. They will then compose their own version of the prayer.
Introduction
Welcome to this Birkat Hamazon unit for junior high school students. The unit briefly addresses the prayer text and then uses the text as a springboard to deal with the major themes of the prayer (e.g. the centrality of Jerusalem in Judaism, the sanctification of eating, etc.). The curriculum is based on a Master’s Thesis entitled “Teaching Birkat Hamazon: The Grace After Meals” by Saul Kaiserman.
The lesson plans are designed to provide guidance and ideas for teachers who are planning lessons on Birkat Hamazon. They have been written with grades 7-8 in mind although many are also appropriate for older students. They are based on a 50 minutes lesson length, although some teachers will find there to be too much content for that lesson length, and may wish to turn them into longer lessons or skip various components. Alternatively, an extra class work section has been added which can be used either for advanced students, students who have finished activities early, or for those teachers who wish to extend the length of the lesson.
This curricular unit makes certain assumptions about the students’ backgrounds. They are presumed to be students in the mainstream Jewish education system, and therefore have a basic background in Judaism. Although they probably have sung Birkat Hamazon by rote, it is assumed that they have never studied it in depth before. It is also assumed that they have basic Hebrew reading skills and few translation skills. It is important to realize, however, that these assumptions do not disqualify these lesson plans for the teacher who is teaching other levels. It is up to the individual teacher to decide whether his/her students will benefit from these lessons and this study unit.
B’hatzlakha!
Introduction to the first lesson: This lesson introduces students to the unit and encourages them to consider the purpose of Birkat Hamazon by determining the ideas and concepts they think are fundamental to the prayer and would include if they were the authors. They will then compose their own version of the prayer.
Lesson objectives
| Content: Students will be able to…
1. Describe the main objective of the course. 2. Explain the concept of Birkat Hamazon and the ideas contained therein. 3. Describe the themes that they feel belong to Birkat Hamazon. |
Skills
Skills: Students will be able to…
1. Express their own ideas on this topic through creative writing.
Values
Values: Students will be able to appreciate the concept of thanking God.
Resources & Equipment needed
| Each student should have a writing utensil and paper |
Procedure
Additional Notes: The ideas that the students raise in both the class discussion as well as their creative writing can be used for the “Why Pray” worksheet for lesson 8. The teacher may wish to note those ideas discussed in class and presented in the creative writing and add them to the table listing reasons for praying. It should be brought to the attention of the students during lesson 8 that some of their own ideas were included in the table.
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