hamodia write up for genessee country

26 TISHREI 5770 Community OCTOBER 14, 2009 HAMODIAC16

The Rochester Jewish com-munity took a trip back to the19th century on the second dayof Chol Hamoed Sukkos. Thetrip was organized by RabbiMordechai Hochheimer, marad’asra of Congregation BethHakneses Hachodosh ofRochester. His goal was to havechildren and adults experiencehalachah rather than simplylearning about it.

The Genesee Country Villageand Museum is a living historymuseum consisting of 60 build-ings that give visitors an idea ofwhat life was like 160 years ago.The village is humming withactivity. Women cook food,weave clothing, and tend gar-dens. The men farm, do black-smithing, and make pottery.While the world has changedradically in the past 160 years,daily life in the 19th centurywas very much the same as ithad been for thousands of years;clothes were made on the sametype of loom, and food wascooked in similar ovens.

Over 120 adults and childrenparticipated in the CholHamoed excursion. Each wasgiven a scavenger hunt with pic-tures and explanations of eachof the 39 melachos. The goal wasto see how many of the melachosthey could find by talking to theinterpreters and listening to oneof three Torah tours.

The third through eighthgrades of the Hillel CommunityDay School, under the directionof principal Rabbi ChaimHisiger and teachers RabbiEliyahu Lowy and MorahNechama Lichtenstein, foundmost of the melachos. One first-grader, Chana Wakslak, fromDerech HaTorah of Rochester,was the clear champion; shetook the tour twice, bringingalong her parents, in order tofind all 39.

Rabbi Hochheimer began histour at a halachic sukkah con-structed especially for the trip.Since the walls were not coveredin canvas or wood, the basicrequirements for a sukkah wereevident. The sukkah wasdesigned to be assembled likethe Mishkan to demonstrate theTorah prohibition of writing onShabbos. Adjacent boards eachhad the same letter written onthem so that they could be easi-ly connected, just as was donewith the Mishkan.

The tour continued into thefields, where participants sawtwo huge oxen with large horns.

The oxen were behind a metalfence, one of the only conces-sions to modernity in the vil-lage. There was a discussionabout the use of the horns tomake a shofar, whether theoxen’s color was red enough tobe used for a parah adumah, andthe signs indicating that theyare kosher animals.

The tour continued to a pio-neer farmstead, where the “ladyof the house” explained whatlife was like for her in the 1850s.She raised a family of 10 chil-dren in one large room lit by twowindows and a smoky fire in thehearth. On her lap she held hergray chicken. Vegetables andfruit were strung from the wood-en rafters. In one corner was aspinning wheel and mortar; inthe other was a thin, lumpy mat-tress held up by ropes, andanother mattress on the floor,both of which had to accommo-date all 12 family members.

Rabbi Hochheimer showedthe many melachos that wereevident in that one small room;for example, grinding corn andflour was tochen, and stringingthe vegetables was me’amer.

Hanging on the wall werevarious animal skins. These ani-mals had to be trapped, slaugh-tered, skinned, and tannedbefore they were ready for use,and each stage involved mela-chos.

The next stop was the barn,in the center of which was alarge room called the threshingfloor, open on two sides to allowfor cross-ventilation. The“farmer” explained all the stepsthat were necessary to make theflour his wife would use to bakebread. He showed viewers histools: a yoke to lead the oxen to

plow, a sharp, curved metallicsickle to harvest, a flail to beatthe grain, and a winnowing panto separate the straw from thegrain. The steps the farmerdescribed were exactly thoseused to make bread for theMishkan.

The group visited the black-smith’s and potter’s shops tolearn about mavir, mechabeh,boneh, soser, and makeh b’patish.Rabbi Hochheimer demonstrat-ed how relevant topics from theGemara, Rishonim, and hilchosShabbos were in these crafts-men’s lives.

The tour progressed toAmherst Humphrey House. Inthe first room, a spinner gave ademonstration at her spinningwheel, taking wool that hadbeen sheared, washed, andcombed, and directing itthrough the wheel to spin it intothread. Next to her sat skeins ofyarn that had dried after beingdyed.

In the next room, the weaversat at a large loom. Remarkably,the technology used to weavefabric in the Mishkan was exact-ly the same as that shown by theweaver.

The last stop on the tour wasa large kitchen in a city homestaffed by a cook. She had thegroup help her grind herbs tomake spice pie. The cook thenprepared a brick fireplace andspacious brick oven, explainingthat she stuck her hand in theoven to determine its tempera-ture. It gave the group a wholenew understanding of the con-cept of yad soledes bo. RabbiHochheimer used the fireplaceand oven to explain why we useblechs and cook cholent as we dofor Shabbos.

In less than two hours, thegroup had seen 37 of the 39melachos in their original form.Participants walked away with aricher and deeper understand-ing of hilchos Shabbos and theirlives as Torah Jews, and CholHamoed was transformed into agrowth experience for the com-munity.

Genesee Country Village is 45minutes west of Rochester and anhour and a half east of NiagaraFalls. For more information aboutgroup tours for your shul, school,or camp, please call RabbiMordechai Hochheimer at (585)271-8768.

Halachah Comes Alive to Rochester Jewish Community

At the Living History Museum

Rabbi Mordechai Hochheimer discussing the tools used for harvesting,threshing, gathering and winnowing.

Students from Hillel Community School of Rochester complete their 39Melachos Scavenger Hunt at the Genesee Country Village on CholHamoed Sukkos.

Children learning about pottery-making and Hilchos Shabbos.

Rabbi Dovid Aryeh Caro, rebbi at Derech HaTorah of Rochester, RabbiAvi Rubin, Chofetz Chaim of Queens, and Elia Rackovsky dismantlingthe sukkah.

Rabbi Baruch Davidowitz, R”M, Yeshivah Chofetz Chaim of Rochester,and Rabbi Mordechai Hochheimer, Rav of Congregation Beth HaknesesHachodosh of Rochester, discussing sugyos from Bava Kama aboutnezek from a shor.