A Child’s Garden of Torah
tORAH aURA pRODUCTIONS 4423 Fruitland Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90058 800–238–6724 • 323–585–7312 www.torahaura.com
Grishaver
Joel Lurie Grishaver is a teacher, writer, storyteller, editor, family educator, cartoonist, and an itinerant preacher. He has served as a counselor, youth advisor, camp director, teacher, principal, the designer of children’s museums, editor, illustrator, consultant, professor, and even layperson. He now co-owns Torah Aura Productions, and has authored close to one-hundred books. Joel lives in Los Angeles, writes, answers a lot of email, teaches and does teacher training and workshops. Joel is a recipient of the 1998 Covenant Award for outstanding Jewish educators.
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Torah A Read-Aloud Bible
Joel Lurie Grishaver Torah Aura Productions 1
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Dedication And now, therefore, write this song for yourselves... (Deuteronomy 31.19) For the J-Man, Joshua Parker, whose questions and stories invited this book and whose digitized and cyberized image that hangs on the wall watched over this book like a guardian angel.
ISBN# 0-933873-14-X 3rd Printing Copyright Š 1996 Joel Lurie Grishaver Published by Torah Aura Productions. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. torah aura productions
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Foreword
K
ids should have Bible dreams. They should be able to
imagine themselves riding on an overcrowded ark filled with cuddly and smelly animals. They should be able to see the rainbow burst through the single window in the ark’s ceiling. They should imagine themselves dancing on their first day, just after their creation in the Garden of Eden. They should have a moment of standing before an inner-mirror and trying on their parent’s special gift, a coat of many colors. Kids love the Bible, because it has it all. The Bible is not witches, dragons, space ships, ancient tombs with booby trapped giant killer boulders, and sword fights. Instead, the Bible has stories of fear and faith. The Bible knows what it is like to feel alone, to feel afraid; to be angry that someone else is loved better. It knows where your heart goes when you are the one who is left out, or the way your feelings can soar when you know that someone really loves you. It tells the story of fights after which we make up, and of the fights from which there is no making up. The power of Bible is that it tells our story. We all have our moments of being Joseph in the limelight when it seems that we are beloved and have everything. And we all have our “in the pit time” when everything caves in and we are just trapped. We all know—in our own life story— what it is to want something that you just can’t have, like Abram and Sarai craved a child. And we all have our own miracles—where God gifts us with something that we no longer believed could ever happen. Isaac is always being conceived and then birthed. The Bible has it all—because it is our own story. A Child’s Garden of Torah was written to be a first telling of these Torah stories. It was written with classroom story circles and darkened bedrooms in mind. It seeks any place where a good story can evoke a great conversation. It was designed to be a first or an early hearing and studying of these great, eternal stories. It was designed to be the beginning of a lot of dreams.
Joel Lurie Grishaver 3
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Table of Contents FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1: Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 2: The Garden in Eden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 3: Battling Brothers: Cain & Abel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 4: The Flood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 5: The Tower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 6: Abram, Sarai & Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 7: Sarah Laughs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 8: Sodom Goes Boom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 9: Rebekkah Really Cares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 10: Battling Brothers: Jacob & Esau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 11: Jacob’s Dream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 12: Israel’s Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 13: The Wrestling Match . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 14: Joseph: The Favorite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 15: Joseph Goes to Jail and Then Works for Pharaoh . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 5
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16: And Finally—Jacob Comes to Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 17: Baby Moses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 18: The Burning Bush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 19: Blood, Frogs, Lice, Wild Animals, Sick Cows, Boils, Hail, Locusts, Darkness, and A Visit From the Angel of Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 20: Miriam’s Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 21: The Ten Commandments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 22: The Golden Calf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 23: God Lives in the Middle of the Families-of-Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 24: Moses Hits the Rock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 25: The Families-of-Israel Enter the Land of Israel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 PARENT/TEACHER NOTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
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Story 1:
Creation
Sunday: It all started when God said, “Let there be light.” Everything had been totally dark. The breath of God blew across the waters. Now there was light. God saw that the light was GOOD! God called the light, “Day.” God called the darkness, “Night.” Now there was evening. Now there was morning. This was the first day. Monday: On the next day God made nothing new. God just said, “Let there be space.” God took the water which was everywhere and split it in half. 7
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All God did on Monday was put space in the middle of the water. God called this space, “Sky.” There was evening. There was morning. A second day. Tuesday: On the next day God said to the waters, “Pull back and make room for some dryness.” The waters followed orders. God called the waters, “Oceans.” God called the dryness, “Land.” God saw that the land and the ocean were GOOD. God said, “Now we need plants and green growing things.” Suddenly, green things were growing everywhere. God saw that the green things growing everywhere were GOOD. There was evening. There was morning. A third day. Wednesday: On the next day God said, “We need lights in the sky.” Suddenly, the sun, the moon, and the stars were in their places. The sun gave sunlight during the day. The moon gave moonlight during the night. 8
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The stars were there to help travelers find their way. Wednesday was a lot like Sunday. God saw that the new lights were GOOD. There was evening. There was morning. A fourth day. Thursday: On the next day God started to make moving things. God said, “Let there be birds in the sky.” God said, “Let there be fish in the seas.” And for fun, God made sea monsters, dinosaurs, and dragons. God saw that all this new life was GOOD. God blessed them and said, “Live long. Have many children. Fill the earth.” Thursday was a lot like Monday. Things were happening in the sky and in the waters. There were birds in the sky and fish in the waters. There was evening. There was morning. A fifth day.
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Friday: On the next day God was ready to make the big things. God was ready to work on land. God said, “Let there be animals.” There were animals everywhere. God saw that animals were GOOD. Then God said, “Let there be people.” Then God added: “Let them be a little like Me.” All of a sudden there was a woman and a man. They were a little like God. God made people in God’s image. God blessed them and said: “Live long. Have many children. Fill the earth. And be in charge of everything.” Friday was a lot like Tuesday. Things were happening on the land. God saw that people and everything else in the world could be VERY GOOD. There was evening. There was morning. A sixth day. 10
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Shabbat: God made the world in seven days. Six of those days God did all the work. On Shabbat God rested. God blessed Shabbat and said to Her, “You are holy.� This was the end of the beginnings. Now the world was ready for the rest of the stories.
Hearing Questions:
One thing I think is very good is ___________________________ . When I rest I like to _________________________________________ . When God rests God likes to _______________________________ .
What was the last day of the week of creation? What did God create on the first day? What was the last thing God created before Shabbat? What did God do on Shabbat? What did God say when God saw the things which had been created?
A Torah Puzzle: To answer these questions you may need to read parts of the story again and think hard. How is Sunday like Wednesday? How is Monday like Thursday? How is Tuesday like Friday? What was the difference between the blessing God gave animals and the blessing God gave people? How are people special?
Imagining Questions: God made me to be a little like God. One way I can be like God is ________________________________________________________ . I can be like God. One thing I can create is ________________ . God said some things are good and very good. One thing I think is good is _________________________________ .
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