Text 1: “Play is an ancient, voluntary, inherently pleasurable, apparently purposeless activity or process that is undertaken for its own sake and that strengthens our muscles and our social skills, fertilizes brain activity, tempers and deepens our emotions, takes us out of time, and enables a state of balance and poise.” - Dr. Stuart Brown
1. Which part of this quote speaks to you? How so?
2. How can play "strengthen our muscles and our social skills, fertilizes brain activity..."?
3. What value does play have?
2. How can play "strengthen our muscles and our social skills, fertilizes brain activity..."?
3. What value does play have?
Text 2: “Play is called recreation because it makes us new again, it creates us and our world. -Dr. Stuart Brown
1. How can play make us new again?
2. How do you define the word world in this quote?
3. How can this quote apply to your classroom if world is defined as learning space?
2. How do you define the word world in this quote?
3. How can this quote apply to your classroom if world is defined as learning space?
The Holiness of Play
Text 3: Hasidic Somersaults - Reb Feibush of Uchnow
He had a tradition that on Friday nights, he would do a somersault in the synagogue before kabbalat Shabbat when he was dressed in his coat and hat. In the morning, after the prayers, he would do it one more time...When Feibush arrived at the prayer “yotzer or” he went before the podium and did a somersault in the study hall. The Hasidim thought the rebbe of Lublin would rebuke him…However, the rebbe of Lublin said that God called to the angels and indicated to them that they should be ashamed of the way they pray. That Feibush, who is flesh and blood, prays better than them.
He had a tradition that on Friday nights, he would do a somersault in the synagogue before kabbalat Shabbat when he was dressed in his coat and hat. In the morning, after the prayers, he would do it one more time...When Feibush arrived at the prayer “yotzer or” he went before the podium and did a somersault in the study hall. The Hasidim thought the rebbe of Lublin would rebuke him…However, the rebbe of Lublin said that God called to the angels and indicated to them that they should be ashamed of the way they pray. That Feibush, who is flesh and blood, prays better than them.
Text 3a: Notes from Rabbi Yochanan Twersky (the Tolner Rebbe)
“It was his custom to do cartwheels/flips at certain moments. He had a fixed time to do it every night, before all holy ritual acts like Kiddush, before lighting Chanukah candles and such, before reading a particularly difficult kvitel [letters of request for assistance from congregants], in order to gladden the bride and groom at a wedding. He would do this as a form of self-erasure (bitul ha-yesh) Sometimes he would explain himself in words of rebirth and renewal, a nullification of the past and open reception for the future.
“It was his custom to do cartwheels/flips at certain moments. He had a fixed time to do it every night, before all holy ritual acts like Kiddush, before lighting Chanukah candles and such, before reading a particularly difficult kvitel [letters of request for assistance from congregants], in order to gladden the bride and groom at a wedding. He would do this as a form of self-erasure (bitul ha-yesh) Sometimes he would explain himself in words of rebirth and renewal, a nullification of the past and open reception for the future.
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What do you make of these Hasidic somersaults?
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Why do you think he and his students are doing them?
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What message are they trying to send - to others and to themselves?
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There were many different forms of physical play the Hasidim engaged in. What spiritual lessons might they find in these somersaults?
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If somersaults are not your chosen act what would you bring to your learning space?
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How do you bring playfulness to your teaching, which, on the face of it, may be more “serious?”
Text 4: Rabbi James Jabobson-Maisels
"Sometimes being silly is a way to show up...it is a practice of being vulnerable and not protecting ourselves, reminding ourselves not to become too self-important...it can release our caution and our fear that we might get it wrong.”
"Sometimes being silly is a way to show up...it is a practice of being vulnerable and not protecting ourselves, reminding ourselves not to become too self-important...it can release our caution and our fear that we might get it wrong.”
1. When were times in your life when playfulness or silliness opened you up to something you wouldn't normally participate in?
2. What role does silliness have in your life?
3. What helps you to be open and vulnerable to your learners?
2. What role does silliness have in your life?
3. What helps you to be open and vulnerable to your learners?