Mishpacha!
Family Time Learning
Session #5
1) Welcome from Rabbi Mo
Here is the the story of the Tower of Babel from the book of Genesis if you want to use it to remember and review.
2) Stories About The Story
One of the ways that our Sages would interact with the stories in the Torah would be to respond with their own stories. These stories are called MIDRASH. These midrashim might fill answer questions they found in the text or fills gaps where the Torah seems to leave out details. All of the midrashim tell us something about what those Sages were thinking, feeling or cared about in their lives. Here you will find three midrashim about the story of Tower of Babel.
- Print out the pages of these midrashim.
- Read the three midrashim together and make sure you all understand them.
- Have each family choose one of the midrashim and draw picture that tells about that midrash.
- Work together to see of you can agree on the what each Sage was thinking or feeling about when they wrote their midrash. (Hint: They all seem to think that there was something wrong with the way the people thought about the tower -- but what?)
The Sages who wrote these midrashim seem to think that tower was something that got in the way of the people acting justly, compassionately and peacefully. The tower itself may have been something very helpful to the people, instead it became hurtful. We have many things (they are kinda like towers) in our lives that can be helpful, but sometimes being hurtful. A great example of these kinds of towers in our houses are technology (phones, televisions, computers, etc.).
- Go on a scavenger around your home and find the items of technology that people in your family use.
- Examine each item together and talk about the ways each of you may use it and the situations or times that using it may help and the ones that may hurt.
- Print this sheet for you to list the items, their uses and the ways that they help or hurt.
Do you know what ‘etiquette’ means? If someone in your family cannot explain it -- look it up together. Thinking our technology and the ways that they may help or hurt us, take some time together and decide what your family’s Tech Etiquette should be.
- Print out the Tech Etiquette worksheet.
- Think about what rules should guide your family’s use of technology.
- You might consider questions like:
- Are there times when certain technologies should not be used? (meals, car, etc.)
- What are the rules of behavior we expect when someone is using a piece of technology?
- Should we have limits on the amount of time we use technology?
- Write out your family’s rules for Tech Etiquette