Generations – an EXCELLENT sermon by Grace Silverstein, Aaron Kahn, and Nathan Szydlow

The Torah is divided into 5 books as our hands show. The 5 books are Genesis/B’reishit,
Exodus/Sh’mot, Leviticus/Vayikra, Numbers/B’midbar and Deuteronomy/D’varim.

Tonight we will be talking about – Tol’dot-Genesis 25:19–Generations

This is the story of Issac, son of Abraham. Abraham fathered Issac. Issac was 40 years old when
he married Rebekah. Rebekah couldn’t have children. So Issac pleaded and prayed to God.
Rebekah became pregnant with twins. Issac was 60 years old when the twins were born. These
boys would become great nations. The older one would serve the younger one. Esau was first
born and Jacob followed right behind.

As they grew up Esau became a skillful hunter who loved the rough and tumble life of an
outdoorsman. Jacob was a mild, peaceful man who stayed at camp. So Jacob was more of a
cultured man favored by his mother. Esau was favored by his father.

As the story goes Esau was starving when he came upon Jacob cooking a stew at camp. Jacob
being the thinker that he was had an idea. When Esau demanded food Jacob said “Give me your
birthright.” Esau was more concerned with dying from lack of food than his birthright. Esau saw
no value in his birthright. So, he sold his birthright to Jacob for some stew. Then Esau left with
food in his stomach and Jacob now had the valuable birthright. The birthright made Jacob the
leader of the family for the next generation.

What’s important to one person might not be important to another.

We have begun to study life cycle events in 4/5grade this year. Our heritage goes from
generation to generation. Here are some photos and drawings that represent what we are
learning.

Sermon by Marlene Plotnick’s 4/5 grade class:

Grace Silverstein
Aaron Kahn
Nathan Szydlow

At the end of the sermon the students showed their artwork of life cycles, pictures of their family trees, photos of them from birth to their current age, their hands and 5 fingers representing the Five Books of the Torah on a tri board. All was representative of TSS families through the Generations.