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The Three Weeks: What, How, and Why – Lesson Plan

Grade Level: 6-12
Time: 40-80 minutes, depending on:

  • balance of text-learning and discussion
  • leader-directed and student-centered and/or chevruta learning
  • Age, background, interest, and skill level of students/campers

Background:

The “Three Weeks” from the 17th of Tammuz (Shiv’ah Asar B’Tammuz) to the 9th of Av (Tisha B’Av) is traditionally the saddest time period in the Jewish calendar, with Tisha B’Av considered the single saddest day of the year, the day on which both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed. 

Learning about the Three Weeks, however, presents challenges. Timing is one obstacle, as the Three Weeks fall out during the summer vacation and camp season in the Northern hemisphere and often during mid-winter break in the Southern hemisphere. Relevance and relatability are other obstacles: it is difficult to grieve something we never experienced, and even more so now, when we have the independent and sovereign State of Israel. The halachot – their historical evolution and the differences between communities – are also less familiar to many.

Introduction to the Lesson:

This lesson will explore the Three Weeks from three angles:

  • History
  • Halacha and practice
  • Meaning-making

The Driving Questions for the lesson are:

  • How did the mourning practices of the Three Weeks emerge and evolve over time?
  • How does halacha and observance evolve with time, place, and culture?
  • How can we make this mourning period and its practices meaningful and relevant to us today?

Objectives:

Students/campers will:

  • Read and understand text sources from Tanach, Talmud, and modern halacha regarding the origin and practices of the Three Weeks as they emerged and evolved over time.
  • Examine and consider how the practices of the Three Weeks have evolved over time and how they differ between various groups within and between Ashkenazi and Sepharadi/Mizrachi (MENA) Judaism.
  • Reflect on and discuss how and why the practices of the Three Weeks have evolved.
  • Reflect on and discuss the challenges that the mourning practices of the Three Weeks present for them.
  • Attempt to come up with ways to personalize the sense of mourning of the Three Weeks, making them more meaningful and relevant.

Materials Needed:

Hook

Begin the session by showing the students the different emoji cards and asking them to identify the different emotions associated with the cards, as well as times when people might feel those specific emotions. The final card should be an emoji that represents sadness.

After showing this emoji, ask the students to consider moments when they feel sad and what they do when they are feeling sad. Following this discussion, explain that while many moments in Judaism celebrate happy occasions, there are also significant days that commemorate sad moments. 

Procedure:

NOTE: The procedure will vary depending on the setting. It is up to the educators to determine how “frontal” this lesson should be, i.e., how much the educator should be reading and leading, as opposed to how “student-centered” the lesson is, with students going through the sources and questions and determining the discussions.

Educators can also create activities and introduce other materials (like maps of regions or profiles of Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews).

  1. Start with a Trigger activity. This can take several forms:
    1. KWL: ask the students to tell you what they KNOW about the 3 Weeks (or about Shiv’ah Asar b’Tammuz or about Tisha B’Av) and what they WONDER about. List the K and the W. At the end of the lesson, ask the students to reflect on what they’ve LEARNED.
    2. Ask the students: What kind of activities or practices HELP you connect to a past tragedy in a meaningful way? These tragedies can be very recent, like October 7, or a little further in the past, like the Holocaust, or in the more “distant” past, like pogroms or expulsions or the destruction of the Beit HaMikdash.
    3. What kind of activities or practices DON’T help, or even detract
    4. Can you imagine a world with a Temple? What do you think that would be like? And can you mourn for something you never knew?
  2. Go through the sources one at a time. This can be done more “frontally” with the educator reading, or have the students go through the sources in chevrutah or in groups. Have the students answer the comprehension questions after each source. On the source sheet, there is space provided for students to fill in the answers. This may be helpful in a more formal educational setting to support comprehension and focus. The questions can also be used as exit tickets or even formative assessment. 
  3. Check for understanding: the educator can review the answers (see here) or solicit them from the students, or ask the students if they are unclear on any of the information. In informal settings (e.g., camp), the comprehension questions can be answered in a whole group process, in a chevruta/small group process, or skipped altogether. In these settings, you may choose to only focus on the thought and discussion questions. 
  4. Do the thought/discussion questions for source 1. 

NOTE: The thought/discussion questions with each source build up to support the questions at the end. 

  1. Steps 2 and 3 should be repeated for each of the 3 sets of sources.
  2. Ask the students if they have any general questions or if they notice and wonder about anything.
  3. The thought/discussion questions must be addressed after the sources. The educator can choose which and how many of the questions to do. The questions are linked to the driving questions, but can serve any purpose the educator chooses.
  4. Read the final discussion prompt and allow for discussion. Students should be encouraged to think of their own answers first with “think time” (30 seconds). Then there can be a “pair-share” format, a “turn and talk,” a “share what your partner/group members said,” or just volunteers to answer aloud.