Jaffa Oranges and Mitzvah Day

Jaffa Oranges from Anton's

Yesterday in my Kitah Aleph class I gave my Jaffa Orange lecture which I first heard from a fantastic teacher, Chana Reich.  I remember observing Chana teach almost 30 years ago at Temple Emanuel and she would take out a Jaffa orange in her Hebrew school class.  She would tell her Kitah Bet students that this orange was grown in Israel and that the sun in Israel had sweetened it and that even the infrequent rain in Israel for which we pray daily helped it  grow.  I had tears in my eyes at the end of her speech and of course her students couldn't wait to get a taste of that orange.  

Kitah Aleph

So yesterday I did my best Chana Reich impression and  brought a whole case of Jaffa Mandarins.  I gave the speech about Israel, the mandarin growing there and that I had just gotten back from Israel.  Of course by the end my students couldn't wait to get a taste of Israel. They even asked to take home the extra's for their siblings.  When my teachers saw that I had Jaffa oranges they all smiled because I think it makes them think about Israel.  

Mitzvah Day Collections and t-shirt

What does this have to do with Mitzvah day at Lakeside you say?  I not only like the taste of Jaffa oranges but I like the idea of supporting Israel by buying these oranges.  I hope that you come out to Mitzvah day at Lakeside and help support some great causes.  We have a tie dye t-shirts project that will benefit  Be The Match, we have project Linus making blankets.  We also have out of the building experiences at the Northern Illinois Food to help process 1,000 pounds in 2 hours.  It's not too late to sign up we could use a few more volunteers for all of these worthy causes. The schedule for the morning is: 
 8:30 am is Registration with a light breakfast, followed by T'filot, at 9:00am and then we move out to do our projects.  I know everyone has a good feeling when they finish doing Mitzvah day.  Try it out and pick up some Jaffa oranges on your way!