Parshat Achrei Mot-Kedoshim: HEARTS

What a relief! This week's parshat gives us a break from the mishkan, sacrifices, leprosy. :)

Parshat Kedoshim includes a long list of various mitzvot. The most well-known and arguably the most important is "veahavta lereacha kamocha," "Love your neighbor as yourself."

After brainstorming ways to show love, we discussed how the heart is a universal symbol of love. If my class was in English, I may have shown this short video explaining why the heart symbol in associated with love:

One artist who is particularly interested in hearts is Jim Dine, who has created millions of pieces of art in different mediums ranging from painting to printmaking to sculpture.

When asked what was his fascination with the

hearts, "I have no idea but it’s mine and I use it as a template for all my emotions. It’s a landscape for everything. It’s like Indian classical music -- based on something very simple but building to a complicated structure. Within that you can do anything in the world. And that’s how I feel about my hearts.”

There are videos of Jim Dine's work, but I also came across this little video which would be very cute to show before a heart-related art project:

As the year draws to a close, I am more and more interested in creating collaborative pieces that can remain hanging in the school. A heart collage is a popular "legacy project" inspired by the amazing Cassie Stephens' blog:

So, basically, I just wanted to "steal" her idea. BUT. She did her project over many weeks with hundreds of students. I, on the other hand, davka wanted to do something super SIMPLE this week. I have been having alot of back issues recently and have received strict orders to "take it easy." So, I didn't want to do any shlepping, painting, or bending. I had considered bringing different medium for them to choose from (pencils, markers, stickers) but I decided to keep it super simple and only offered pastels. I also decided to give very little to no instruction - I did not give them a heart stencil, I did not tell them to outline the heart, or limit them to using specific colors (monochromatic or cool/warm colors). I am very aware that the final result would have been much more "impressive" with more instruction and direction (and paint) but the kids were also happy to do be totally free...

These were the examples that my own kids and I did at home:

Here are some of the kids working on their hearts:

And, here is our final product hanging in the hallway:

SPREAD THE LOVE!

SHABBAT SHALOM!