GRADUATION ADDRESS 2024
GRADUATION ADDRESS 2024 By: Rabbi Seth Grauer ברוכים הבאים, good evening and welcome. Our graduation ceremony is supposed to be the highlight, climax and apex of your high school years. This year, however, amidst our celebrations (and we absolutely will and must be joyous) – we have to recognize that it has been a hard […]
Eighth Night • Sparks of Light 5783
What Can We Learn from the Chanukah Candles? Ruth Paling (Grade 9) The candle represents the mitzvot while the Torah represents the light – “נר מצוה ותורה אור, a mitzvah is a candle and Torah is light” (Proverbs 6:23). When giving to charity or inviting guests into your home, light spreads throughout the world with […]
Seventh Night • Sparks of Light 5783
The Holiday of Lights Sarah Beldeb and Noemi Ibghi, Grade 11 Chanukah, “the holiday of lights”: where do we get this phrase? The obvious answer is that we light the chanukiah for eight nights in remembrance of the miracle that happened when the oil that was supposed to only last for one night lasted eight! […]
Sixth Night • Sparks of Light 5783
Reena Fixler and Yamaya Newman, Grade 10 Why do we celebrate the holiday of Chanukah on the 25th of Kislev specifically? Chanukah is a holiday filled with light and happiness. It’s a time when all Jews – no matter their specific beliefs – get together and remember the miracles our ancestors experienced many years ago. […]
Fifth Night • Sparks of Light 5783
Yael Diena and Gila Grauer, Grade 10 On Chanukah, we light the Menorah for eight days to commemorate the miracle in the Beit HaMikdash, where a small jug of oil meant to last only one day burned for eight days. The custom is to use olive oil to light the candles, as they used in […]
Fourth Night • Sparks of Light 5783
The Deeper Meaning of Beit Shammai’s Opinion Nava Edery and Aleeza Glogauer, Grade 12 Chanukah is a beautiful holiday filled with light and joy, but it also has contradictions about how we create this light. We review the dispute between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai each year concerning the order of lighting the candles. Beit […]
Third Night • Sparks of Light 5783
Lighting up the Chanukah Lessons Tali Wercberger, Grade 12 Chanukah is known as a holiday to celebrate because of the miracles Hashem did for us. He gave us an unpredicted win in the battle against the Greeks, as well as an extraordinary miracle of the scant amount of oil in the Beit HaMikdash burning for […]
Second Night • Sparks of Light 5783
Mia Beldeb, Grade 12 Every holiday in the Jewish calendar follows a similar pattern; we repeat the same rituals every day. For instance, we shake the same lulav and etrog every day throughout Sukkot; we blow the same shofar on both days of Rosh Hashanah; and on Pesach, we read the same Haggadah both nights. […]
Introduction to Sparks of Light • Sparks of Light 5783
Introduction to Sparks of Light Rabbi Seth Grauer, Rosh Yeshiva & Head of School Dear BAS Community, It is that time of year again when we once again send out our Sparks of Light series. For the next eight nights, each of our campus communities will receive short divrei Torah and inspirational messages from faculty […]
First Night • Sparks of Light 5783
Reena Straus and Hannah Oziel, Grade 12 The Chanukah story tells of all the struggling and suffering the Jews faced under Greek rule while Antiochus was king. We learn that the Greeks did not care about annihilating us physically, but rather they wanted to Hellenize us in order to extinguish the light of […]
