In this 'field guide' we will be looking Torah Aura Productions Hebrew/Prayer curricular resources. We offer a series of interlocking materials that both provide choice of texts for different needs and offer a consistent approach to the mastery of Hebrew and the development of a relationship with the Jewish liturgy. While we will talk more of these materials later, here is a quick introduction.

Over the past two hundred years, Americans have reproduced George Washington’s Mount Vernon plantation house more often, and in a greater variety of media, than any of their country’s other historic buildings. In this highly original new book, Lydia Mattice Brandt chronicles America’s obsession with the first president’s iconic home through advertising, prints, paintings, popular literature, and the full-scale replication of its architecture. Even before Washington’s death in 1799, his house was an important symbol for the new nation. His countrymen used it to idealize the past as well as to evoke contemporary--and even divisive--political and social ideals. In the wake of the mid-nineteenth century’s revival craze, Mount Vernon became an obvious choice for architects and patrons looking to reference the past through buildings in residential neighborhoods, at world’s fairs, and along the commercial strip. The singularity of the building’s trademark piazza and its connection to Washington made it immediately recognizable and easy to replicate. As a myriad of Americans imitated the building’s architecture, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association carefully interpreted and preserved its fabric. Purchasing the house in 1859 amid intense scrutiny, the organization safeguarded Washington’s home and ensured its accessibility as the nation’s leading historic house museum. Tension between popular images of Mount Vernon and the organization’s "official" narrative for the house over the past 150 years demonstrates the close and ever-shifting relationship between historic preservation and popular architecture.In existence for roughly as long as the United States itself, Mount Vernon’s image has remained strikingly relevant to many competing conceptions of our country’s historical and architectural identity.

Born out of wedlock to a bitter and vindictive mother, Laura Ashleigh is a brilliant student with a gift for languages. Denied the opportunity to attend Yale College due to its men-only policy, she accepts a newly created position at the local library. The sudden death of her mother frees Laura from a life of servitude and daily criticisms, leaving her struggling to find purpose in her life. An advertisement in a mid-west newspaper catches her attention: a horse rancher in Colorado named Ben McCallister is seeking a wife. With destiny beckoning, Laura posts a reply. As she journeys across Nebraska, she begins to transform, emerging from the shadows as a vibrant, confident woman ready to embrace life’s challenges. When the Army supply wagons she is traveling with are threatened by a large band of Cheyenne Indians, a stranger saves them. To her surprise, the man who saved them is none other than Ben McCallister, the man she is destined to marry. He is more than she had dared to hope for—handsome and dangerous, moving with the lethal grace of a jungle cat. Laura will lead him down a different path and shape their future; together with his half-Indian brother Jake, they will forge a dynasty.