Teaching Tabernacles Welcome Teacher! We can all relate! It's that "Jewish holiday marathon" time of year again, and as exciting and dynamic as it is, it's an exhausting time to be a Limmudei Kodesh teacher! As other teachers are slowly easing themselves into the new academic year, we are already busy trying to cram a wealth of crucial information and inspiration into a few measly days. As Limmudei Kodesh teachers, we have no choice but to get right back into the swing of things - we only hope our students can keep up with the pace! Sukkot really is a remarkable time of year to be Jewish! With so many weird and wonderful customs, interesting and original insights, capturing our students' attention should be as easy as aleph, bet, gimmel!! But no teacher can be complacent! Sukkot is so rich in customs and symbolism that you may be tempted to focus on the practice of the mitzvot at the expense of their deeper meaning. This may wash with the younger children but your older classes will need more. High school students used to celebrating Sukkot will associate its customs with simplistic concepts learnt in day school - unless YOU offer an alternative. Tailor your presentation of Sukkot to the maturity and intelligence level of your class. All too often students who are discussing international relations in history or examining solutions to the Y2K bug in computing, arrive in the Limmudei Kodesh class only to be subjected to a worn out syllabus that alarmingly resembles the one used by their first grade teacher! To be fair, this perennial problem is unique to Limmudei Kodesh teachers who, unlike our colleagues, are obliged to teach the same festivals year after year. While the core material never really does change - ensure you augment the level of sophistication as your students mature. Judaism is a religion of action. You can meditate under a tree if you like, but other demands are often more pressing: buying materials to build your Sukkah, building and decorating it, choosing the finest Arba Minim, preparing your home and freezer for the holiday... Ultimately, so much of religious practice is a simulation game, akin to children "dressing up" and acting out imaginary lives. We eat Matzah on Pesach to literally taste the affliction of our slavery in Egypt. We light the Menorah on Chanukah to relive the miracle of the oil. We blow the Shofar on Rosh Hashana to recall Abraham's faith in God at the Akeida. As teachers, we understand the power of simulation and realia. We know just how effective sounds, sights, tastes and active participation are in the classroom. With this in mind, we should exploit the wisdom characterizing all our religious practice and stimulate our students with colors, shapes, pictures, smells and whole person activities. Just as we take ourselves into the Sukkah, why not bring the festival of Sukkot into the classroom to allow our children to experience what it's all about?