April 24, 2015
5 Iyar 5775
Volume 18, Issue 32
Dates to Remember:
 M 4/27 – 7th Grade Trip
to Fordham University
 T 4/28 – 6th Grade Trip
to Alley Pond Park
 Th 4/30 – 1st Grade
Trip to Skippy John Jones
Candle Lighting 7:26

Rabbi Michael Weichselbaum
Menahel
While each may differ in the number of
‫ ברכות‬that we make, we nevertheless always say
‫ הבדלה‬following either ‫ יום טוב‬or ‫שבת‬. After
‫שבת‬, we say the ‫ ברכה‬of ‫ בורא מניני בשמים‬while
following a ‫יום טוב‬, we do not. The reason for
this is to help the body recover from the loss of
the ‫ נשמה יתרה‬which '‫ ה‬gives us every ‫ שבת‬but
which He removes upon its conclusion. When
‫ יום טוב‬ends, however, we do not make this
‫ ברכה‬over the spice. Wherein lies the
difference? Some ‫ ראשונים‬learn from this lack
of ‫ בשמים‬that '‫ ה‬does not give us a ‫ נשמה יתרה‬on
Yom Tov and therefore the ‫ ברכה‬is not
necessary. Other ‫ ראשונים‬believe that we do
indeed receive a ‫ נשמה יתירה‬on ‫יום טוב‬. The
question would then be, how does our body
recover from the loss of the ‫ נשמה יתירה‬without
the ‫ ?בשמים‬Rav Aharon Kotler ‫ זצ''ל‬explains
that due to the unique aspect of each Yom Tov,
the extra ‫ נשמה‬that we receive on Yom Tov
does not leave us upon its departure. Since the
‫ נשמה יתירה‬remains within us, our bodies do not
suffer the consequence of its loss.
With ‫ פסח‬just behind us and ‫ שבועות‬rapidly
approaching, this is a valuable piece of
knowledge. Many of us lament the effort and
the money expended in our preparations for
‫פסח‬. We’ve each heard many people and
perhaps we ourselves are guilty of complaining
about the month before ‫ פסח‬- how we cleaned
and scrubbed every inch in the house (How I
regret eating on my ceiling!) in getting ready for
a ‫ חג‬that was over in the blink of an eye! We
bemoan the high cost of ‫ פסח‬food, food that
will never be given a second glance the minute
that we retrieve our ‫ חמץ‬from the ‫ גוי‬who
bought it.
Are all of our efforts to prepare for the
‫ חגים‬just fleeting investments in fulfilling ‫?מצוות‬
(I do not mean to negate the priceless reward
that we will all IY’’H be receiving in ‫עולם הבא‬.)
Using the approach of Rabbi Kotler, we can
perhaps shed some light on this. In ‫תהלים‬, ‫דוד‬
‫ המלך‬writes, "‫"הזורעים בדמעה ברינה יקצורו‬,
“Those who sow in tears (who put effort into
their work) will reap in joy.” Each moment and
every dollar that we spend in our ‫יום טוב‬
preparations enhances the quality of the ‫נשמה‬
‫ יתירה‬that ‫ הקב''ה‬gives us on Yom Tov. All of
the extra preparations which we’ve performed
on behalf of Yom Tov work to enhance our
‫ שמחת יום טוב‬again, giving additional life to our
‫נשמה יתירה‬. It then remains a part of our being
as the Yom Tov leaves us and we face the
return to our normal routines.
We may seem to be the same people that
we were before ‫פסח תשע''ה‬, but in reality we
have grown. Not by a miracle, but by dint of
the sacrifices that we made in order to fulfill the
Mitzvos of Hashem. May we continue to grow
‫מחיל אל חיל‬.
Shabbos Ends 8:35 
Class Milestones
Pre-1a – Mrs. Rachel Chait
Spring is here and the children are budding
and blossoming in all areas. This week we
learned the letter “cranky koof”. It’s hard not to
mix up the names of koof and kuf. Through
games and activities, our Hebrew reading skills
are really developing. Did you hear the news?
The girls are davening using a special siddur! If
you peek into our classroom during Tefilla time
you will see them holding their siddurim, sitting
respectfully and pointing to the words they are
davening.
This week’s Parshios, Tazria and Metzora,
speak of the issur of Loshon Horah. After
hearing about tzora’as and what embarrassment a
person who spoke loshon harah had to go
through, we understand that speaking badly
about others is not something acceptable. We
quickly took out papers and pencils and got to
work to write notes and signs reminding us to be
careful to use only nice, kind words when
speaking and to refrain from talking about our
friends.
V’ahavta l’raiyacha kamocha is the focal
point of our day at this time. This is a mitzvah in
the Torah stressed by Rebbe Akiva to his
students. We have numerous opportunities
during the day when we stop and focus on these
words, in our pursuit of treating others kindly
and developing midos tovos within ourselves.
2nd Grade – Ms. Yocheved Landesman
The second graders have finished their
reading train! Congratulations on all that reading
and reflecting on hundreds of books. I am so
proud of all the students for continuing to
challenge themselves to read and for working
together to accomplish this amazing goal. Our
train will now travel out of our classroom and
into the hallway!
The girls have been busy writing Pesach
Poetry. Each girl has written at least 3 different
types of poems. We have written rhyming, list,
and acrostic poems and some students have even
challenged themselves to write Haikus! We will
be sharing our poetry at the next Author’s Share.
The girls have really enjoyed this unit and it has
been so nice to see them apply their writing skills
with so much excitement!
In math, we are working on measuring. The
girls have learned to measure objects in both
inches and yards and now we are learning about
centimeters as well. We have learned to estimate
lengths and have also been reviewing time and
money. It would be very helpful to review these
concepts at home too. Have a fantastic and
mindful Shabbos!
On Monday, grades 6-8 were privileged to hear from
Mrs. Chumy Mirsky, Assistant Principal at Shevach
High School. Mrs. Mirsky spoke to the girls about her
grandparents and related their amazing stories of
survival during WWII. The students were spellbound
as Mrs. Mirsky related the tragic moments as well as
the countless stories of heavenly intervention. The
talk left the girls inspired to grow, achieve, and
persevere even in the face of adversity.

12/5/2014


klaliyos and it shows! We just finished a unit on common Hebrew
synonyms and will begin a new unit on the tefillos of Shabbos
soon. Have a wonderful Shabbos!

6th & 8th Math – Mrs. Chana Bregman

6th Grade: We have entered a unit on geometry and are
discovering
the different patterns that Hashem wove into the

world. The relationship between triangles and rectangles are

consistent and amazing. The girls have been working on finding

the area of irregular shapes by breaking it into its regular shapes
or by building it into a regular shape and then subtracting the area

that had been added. The girls are finding this interesting and

challenging. Have a wonderful Shabbos!
 – Mrs. Adina Burger
8th Grade: We have continued our unit on linear equations.
What do marshmallows and candy corn have to do with The girls can recognize a linear equation, identify its parts, and
Parshas Chayei Sarah? We were very excited in Kitah Gimmel graph it. We have begun to graph systems of equations and will
to complete Parshas Chayei Sarah in Chumash! Each girl wrote continue with that next week. Have a wonderful Shabbos!
two beautiful Sikumim entirely in Hebrew summarizing the final
Perakim of the Parsha. Exceptional creativity was expressed by 7th ELA & 8th ELA/SS – Mrs. Julie Faska
the girls this past Friday at our Siyum! The girls enjoyed dressing
The 8th graders have been working hard (in between
up as one of the characters mentioned in the Parsha and shared yearbook!) on their research papers. The students have been
a snack that related to one of the concepts we learned about. doing a tremendous amount of research, organizing their
We have increased the pace of learning to three Pesukim a day, information, and working on implementing the MLA style. They
and as we continue on with Parshas Toldos it's delightful to see have also started selecting topics and themes for their photo
how the girls are advancing in their fluency and abilitiy to essays; I am looking forward to seeing the final products. We are
decode Pesukim on their own.
completing our reading module on WWII and have been
5th Grade & 6A Science – Mrs. June Phillips
Our fifth graders have begun their exploration of rocks and
minerals. When looking at rocks, we found that they contain
little crystals which we call minerals. We learned how to identify
minerals by observing their properties including streak,
hardness, and cleavage or fracture. We found out that igneous
rocks result from processes we have already learned about.
Magma rises at divergent boundaries, forming igneous rocks at
the surface. When a plate melts into the mantle at convergent
boundaries, the melted rock rises and erupts as lava from
volcanos. The girls sorted igneous rocks based upon observed
characteristics which we found out are due to the types of
minerals they contain and the speed at which molten rock cools.
We also saw some cool (I should say hot) lava flows which were
gradually turning into rock. We look forward to our exploration
of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.
Our sixth graders have completed their studies of simple
organisms. We learned that unicellular Protista are not so
simple. It is unbelievable that inside a single cell, these
organisms have all that they need to stay alive. For example,
freshwater Paramecium and Ameba have special contractile
vacuoles which allow them to live in freshwater in which water
constantly enters cells. The vacuoles pump out this extra water.
In just two days, the girls did an incredible job on projects
which explained what the world would be like without Fungi. In
their presentations, they showed that without Fungi we would
be deprived of some wonderful foods such as breads and
chocolate and lifesaving antibiotics like penicillin. Fungi also
perform another important role, recycling wastes in ecosystems.
Our girls will conclude the year as zoologists and pond
ecologists. Have a wonderful Shabbos.
 – Mrs. Chana Bregman
We are in the middle of a fascinating unit regarding an
"ishah sotah". We have begun to examine the value that
Hashem places on a Jewish marriage and will continue to do so
next week. The girls have been working really hard in yedios
exploring the ideas of varying historical perspectives, race
superiority, and how to maintain dignity and identity in defiance
of outside influences. We are completing the Great Depression
in Social Studies; we have discussed the stock market’s influence,
irresponsible financial decisions, and lack of government
involvement leading up to the Stock Market Crash and the Great
Depression. We will begin discussing the Holocaust in class with
many discussions based journal responses and assignments. We
will be reading the play Anne Frank in conjunction with our Social
Studies unit.
The 7th grade has started a new non-fiction module on
Frederick Douglass and the development and history of slavery in
the United States. The students will be reading informational
texts in addition to our discussions in class. We are also
developing our featured articles and I am eager to see what topics
the girls will choose to write about!
Yom Ha’atzmaut
Bnos Malka was a sea of blue and white on Thursday as the girls
learned about and celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut. There were a
number of age appropriate projects throughout the day for all
the girls in grades 1-8. The 1st and 2nd grade students created
blue and white Israeli flag wind socks that will look lovely hanging
outside. The 3rd and 4th grade students beaded blue and
white bracelets that they proudly wore for the rest of the day.
The middle school participated in the bi-annual Bnos Malka
Brachos Bee. The girls have been studying the guide to Brachos
for a number of weeks and each class held smaller Brachos Bees
in their classrooms. The winner and runner up from each class
came together to compete in the school wide challenge. This
year, because the bee was held on Yom Ha’atzmaut, and it is a
Shmitta year in Israel, there was a section dedicated to the
special halachot of Shmitta. The girls did a wonderful job
answering questions until finally Chedvah Benelyahou from 8th
grade was declared the winner. Congratulations! Yasher Koach
to all of the contestants who did an outstanding job
representing their classes.
The PA, in order to celebrate, gave out delicious blue and white
cookies to the entire school – and they all knew which bracha to
make on a cookie!