igniting your shabbat services
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE Hello and welcome to Spark! Spark is a new idea from Tribe, aimed at facilitating the smooth running of Toddlers Services, Children s Services and Youth Services across United Synagogue communities. Firstly, thank you for offering to run a Children s Service in your local shul. The US is very proud of the numerous Children s services that are run every week across the UK, and we would not be able to do this without you! Spark has been designed in order to help you run your Children s Services. Obviously, every Children s Service is different, in terms of how many children there are; what their age range is; how long it is for; and how knowledgeable the children are likely to be of this week s parasha. Ideally, where possible, a Children s Service should consist of some time used to discuss the weekly parasha, and some time devoted to davening. Spark is aimed at the parasha part of the service. It gives you an overview of what happens in the weekly parasha, and then a song, activity, discussion or Dvar Torah to run with the children depending on their ages. After the parasha summary on the next page, Spark has been split into 5 sections. Larger communities may have 5 different Children s / Youth Services running concurrently. Each of these will be able to use one section for their relevant age group. If your shul does not have as many groups, then you should use the section that best suits the age range of your participants. It has been created in a way to be flexible, so that it can be run in 10 minutes, if you have a short service, or longer if you have the time. If you also look at sections for other age groups, you may even find that you would like to use the ideas and information from more than one of the sections. It is important to note that Spark should help you to run Children s Services, but it does not completely run it for you. It is not designed to give to one of the children to read out to the group for them to run themselves. You are running the Children s Service, and Spark is here to help you do it. Largely, no props will be needed, but ideally you should read Spark before you start the Children s Service, so that you can think of further ideas to complement it. We hope that you and the children in the Children s Service will benefit from Spark, we thank and congratulate you for doing it; and as always we welcome your feedback. Shabbat shalom, The Tribe Education Team
Parasha Summary n This is the first parasha of the third book of the Torah /Leviticus. nthe book of /Leviticus differs from Bereishit/Genesis and Shemot/ Exodus, as it primarily talks about the Laws which we are commanded to keep, and a detailed description of the Mishkan (Sanctuary). n The parasha begins with God speaking to Moshe in the Mishkan. God tells Moshe about the korbonat - the offerings that were an important part of the service in the Mishkan. We learn about various types of korbanot: The olah, also known as the burnt offering, which is burnt entirely on the altar. The five types of mincha offerings, which are sacrifices made from flour and olive oil. The shelamim, the peace offering. The chatat, various sacrifices brought as an atonement for someone who sinned The asham, a sacrifice brought for specfic sins. n There are many laws and intricate rules regarding the korbanot, but one rule applied to all: Every sacrifice was brought with salt.
Pre-nursery to Reception Tots Here is a song to sing with the children, even though it is not connected to this week s parasha. Alternatively, you can try and remind the children of some of the songs that they have learnt in recent weeks. How are you? (4x) How are you? (4x) Hooooow are you? Hooooow are you? Hooooow are you?
YEAR 1 & 2 Ages 5-7 In this week s parasha we read about many of the sacrifices that were made in the time of the Temples. Depending on the circumstance and reason for each offering, what was used for the offerings varied. Activity: n Play Fruit Basket with the children, with the items used as offerings, instead of fruits. n All the children except one should sit on chairs in a circle. The one remaining child stands in the middle of the circle. n Each of the children is given a name, of either sheep, goats, a bull or flour. The child in the middle calls out one of the names and every child who is part of that group has to get up and swap chairs with another child. The child in the middle tries to sit down while there is an empty chair. n If the child in the middle calls out offerings then every child should get up and swap chairs.
YEAR 3 & 4 Ages 7-9 In this week s parasha we see that the Aleph in (the first word of the parasha) is small. means and He called, and in this instance it is referring to God calling Moshe. The small Aleph symbolises that Moshe was so humble and modest, that he didn t even want to be written about in the Torah. Activity: n Play Mallet s Mallet with the children: n Split the children into two teams, and choose two children, (one from each team,) to sit next to each other, in front of all the other children. n Give them a word, and they have to say a word that is connected to the word just said, going back and forth in turn. They may not say something that has already been said, and they must say something straight away. This continues until one of the children cannot think of any words. Whoever wins that round gets a point for their team. n Any word can be used as the starting word, but each word only has to be connected to the word just said, i.e. after the first word, it will not necessarily be connected to the starting word. n Use words that have come up in this week s parasha, and for additional points for their team, ask the children if they know what the references in the parasha are. n Possible words to use: Sheep / Flour / Sacrifice / Oven / Salt / Peace / Guilt / Aleph.
YEAR 5 & 6 Ages 9-11 In this week s parasha we see that the Aleph in (the first word of the parasha) is small. means and He called, and in this instance it is referring to God calling Moshe. The small Aleph symbolises that Moshe was so humble and modest, that he didn t even want to be written about in the Torah. Activity: n Play Mallet s Mallet with the children: n Split the children into two teams, and choose two children, (one from each team,) to sit next to each other, in front of all the other children. n Give them a word, and they have to say a word that is connected to the word just said, going back and forth in turn. They may not say something that has already been said, and they must say something straight away. This continues until one of the children cannot think of any words. Whoever wins that round gets a point for their team. n Any word can be used as the starting word, but each word only has to be connected to the word just said, i.e. after the first word, it will not necessarily be connected to the starting word. n Use words that have come up in this week s parasha, and for additional points for their team, ask the children if they know what the references in the parasha are. n Possible words to use: Sheep / Flour / Sacrifice / Oven / Salt / Peace / Guilt / Aleph. Discussion Points: n Ask the children how they would define modesty. n Is modesty something that you would expect from a leader? Is it necessary in a leader? n Is it hard to be modest in today s society? n Have the boundaries of modesty changed over the years?
Youth service Ages 12-18 Dvar Torah This week we begin the third book of the Torah, called /Leviticus. The first parasha of this book is called, and the opening word in this week s parasha is. means he called, and when we look at the first word in the parasha, we can see that it has an unusual sized letter. The last letter of this word, (Alef) is very small. This is not the only Alef in Tanach which is of a different size. In the book of Divrei Hayamim/ Chronicles I, there is another irregular Alef. It is in the word Adam, in the verse which tells us the order of the generations beginning with Adam - the very first man. The Alef in the word Adam is not small like the Alef in the word. Quite the opposite, this Alef is oversized, larger than the other letters. We can learn something about Adam from the oversized Alef in his name. Adam knew he was very special, because he was created by God's own hands. He felt very sure about himself, so sure of himself that he wasn't careful and he made the mistake of eating from the Tree of Knowledge. Every person should know how special he is, but he should not become proud or careless. Moshe surely knew that he was special - after all, he was the only one to speak to God face to face. Yet, Moshe felt more humble than any other person. He used to tell himself: "All that I have is a gift from God. If God had given these opportunities to someone else, he surely would have been much better than me." Moshe considered himself to be smaller and less important than others. That's why there is a little Alef in the word. The famous commentator Rashi tells us that in this parasha, God calling Moshe was a sign of special care. God loves humble people, because Moshe was so humble, God called to him and showed him special attention. We are all children of Adam and each of us has a spark of Moshe in our souls. To be as great as Adam could have been, we have to act small and humble, as Moshe did.
igniting your shabbat services We hope you find our guide to this week s Parasha useful. Be sure to look out for exciting Tribe programmes in your shul. Shabbat Shalom! The Tribe Education Team t: 020 8343 5656 e: info@tribeuk.com www.tribeuk.com