Diving into Creation of the World

Students continued exploring the connection between Rosh Hashanah and Genesis/Bereshit through diving into the creation of the world. Through their own stories of beginnings, hearing a story about how Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the world and activities to reflect on how birthdays are celebrated, students deepened their understanding of Rosh Hashanah and continued bonding as a class. In Hebrew students played with the words יום הולדת, להוריד,  להרים  , שנה טובה (good year, to raise, to lower, birthday).

During the family program students and parents focused on Teshuva (returning to our best selves), Tefillah (prayer) and Tzedakah (justice), pillars of the High Holiday season. Students engaged with these core pieces through song, dance and games while parents explored them through biblical and Talmudic texts and modern psychology. At the end students and parents rejoined to share their learning and brought home the continuing conversation about how to work on these pieces and kavod (respect) as a family.

Questions to ask your child:

What were some stories you shared about when you were born?
What are some Jewish stories for how the world was born?
What do you do for your birthday and do you do some of those things to celebrate the world on Rosh HaShana for its birthday?
What Hebrew word do you like to hear (they can use the English instead of the Hebrew, right now they’re learning to respond to the Hebrew word but not repeat it)

Announcements

We look forward to activities with students in the rotunda following Yom Kippur services on Wednesday!