TIA Weekly Blog

"Rabbi Tarfon taught...This was a favorite teaching of his: you are not obliged to complete the task, neither are you free to desist from it." Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers This is one of my favorite quotes from the Mishnah. This week it describes many different aspects of what is happening in our school programs. On Wednesday we concluded Hebrew School and had the last meeting of Teen Night. This Sunday, May 21st is our last day of Religious School. A tradition since the conclusion of the 2017-2018 school year is to review, reflect, and reward through a friendly day of Maccabiah Color War Games. It is spirited, fun, and very competitive. (We may have the most competitive group of students I've ever worked with.) We test the brains and brawn of our students. It is a day to close out one chapter but also to look forward to what the next year holds. We know that we have accomplished a lot this year but we always have more to do and learn. This also goes for our 2nd Annual Omer Cereal Challenge.  Last year we collected a total of 122 boxes to donate to the Akron Canton Food Bank. As of today we have collected 240. We hope we can collect 114 more boxes for a total of 354 from Temple Israel this year. Anyone can donate! We are ending our collection on May 26th, at the end of the Counting of the Omer which concludes on Shavuot. There's always more knowledge to acquire and there's never an end to mitzvot we can do.