*This book was originally published in English and is available to the public at large in English. It is not a selection of Sifriyat Pijama\u2019s parent program in North America, The PJ Library.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Circle of Friends\u201d is a picture book without text. Giora Carmi\u2019s illustrations draw us into a world of events that take place in the short distance between the house and the nearby bench. Even young children will be able to \u201cread\u201d the pictures and tell the story according to their understanding. Reading a story told in pictures requires one to pay attention to fine details and to the connections between the pictures. Your\u00a0 children will be able to enjoy the book independently by looking at the pictures, but it\u2019s much more fun to sit with them and tell the story together. Enjoy!<\/p>\n
\u201cMatan Baseter\u201d <\/em><\/strong>\u2013 Giving Charity in Secret<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The boy who gives away his muffin and the man who receives it do not know one another, but the link between them sets in motion a cycle of giving and receiving. There are different types of giving in the story: Direct and overt\u00a0 giving,\u00a0 giving without expecting anything in return, and giving when the person on the receiving end does not even know he has been given something.<\/p>\n Maimonides describes eight levels or degrees of giving tzedakah<\/em>, or charity.<\/p>\n Matan ba-seter, <\/em>giving charity in secret, is one of the highest levels:<\/p>\n \u201cAnd he does not know to whom he is giving, and the poor person does not know from whom he has received\u201d <\/em>(Mishneh Torah, Hilkhot Matanot Aniyim<\/em>, Chapter 10 verse 8).<\/p>\n Maimonides teaches us that this is in order to avoid embarrassment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":65372,"menu_order":4,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"agegroup":[767],"book-subject":[1386,1287,1295,1305],"distribution_year":[1057],"class_list":{"0":"post-71170","1":"book","2":"type-book","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"agegroup-preschool-3-5","8":"book-subject---en","9":"book-subject--en","12":"distribution_year-2010-2011"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n