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 nwe begin this week s parasha by reading the details of the commandment for Aharon about lighting the Menorah. nwe then read about the day for second Passover (Pesach Sheni), which was a chance for people who couldn t give the sacrifice on Passover, due to contamination with a dead body, to give it on this day. nmoshe is commanded to make 2 silver trumpets, which will be used to give messages to Israel, for example if there is a short blast, then the camps which were situated on the east of all the camps should start travelling. nwe see the dissatisfaction which Bnei Yisrael had with the Manna (the bread that Hashem sent down) and Moshe s despair. nmiriam and Aharon speak badly about Moshe, and are sent out of camp as a punishment.
Pre-nursery to Reception Tots In this week s parasha we read about how the Children of Israel complained about the bread which Hashem sent them. This teaches us that we should always be content with what we have. Activity: Ask the Kids what food they like best and then sing a song about their favorite foods. Tune: The Farmer in the Dell My favourite food is ) (child) My favourite food is ) Hi-ho, the derry-o (all) his/her favourite food is (all)
YEAR 1 & 2 Ages 5-7 In this week s parasha Aharon is given very detailed instructions on how to perform the mitzvah of lighting the Menorah, from Moshe. We are specifically told that Aharon does exactly as he has been instructed. It is very important when we are following a commandment or fulfilling a mitzvah, that we do it in the right way, as we are supposed to. Activity; n Play Simon Says with the children: n Choose one child to be Simon, but in this version of the game call them Moshe. n Moshe should instruct the other children to do a variety of movements, e.g. nod your head / clap your hands / jump up and down. n If Moshe says clap your hands then the children should not do as instructed. n But if Moshe says Moshe says clap your hands then they should do it. n If a child follows an instruction when they should not have, then they are out of the game.
YEAR 3 & 4 Ages 7-9 In this week s parasha we read about Miriam and Aharon, who spoke negatively about Moshe. In Judaism, Lashon Hara (speaking badly about others) is considered to be such a terrible thing, that some say it is equal to murder in its severity. Activity: Play Chinese Whispers with the children: n All the children sit in a circle, and one child whispers something to the child next to them. This child then whispers what they have heard, to the child next to them. n The last child in the circle announces what they have heard Is it the same as what the first child said? Discussion Points; n This activity shows the importance of being careful with what you say. When the Bnei Yisrael were travelling, if they spoke Lashon Hara, they would be punished and so get leprosy. Why is Lashon Hara so bad, that you got such a severe punishment for it? n How would we feel now if we got such a visibly obvious punishment such as leprosy? n Would this encourage us to not speak Lashon Hara again?
YEAR 5 & 6 Ages 9-11 In this week s parasha we read about Miriam and Aharon, who spoke negatively about Moshe. In Judaism, Lashon Hara (speaking badly about others) is considered to be such a terrible thing, that some say it is equivalent to murder in its severity. Activity; Play Mallet s Mallet with the children: n Choose two children, and give them a key word, e.g. flower. The first child has to say the first thing that they can think of, that is connected to flower. The next child says the first thing that they can think of, that is connected to the word just said (word association). n Each turn, the children should say a new word immediately, that has not been said before. n Example key words summer / love / food / colours / school. Sometimes, the child may be in such a rush to say something, they may not say what they had wanted to or planned. Sometimes it can be very difficult to be constantly vigilant about what we say. Discussion Points; n Miriam spoke Lashon Hora about her brother Moshe. She was sent outside the camp for 7 days, but in her merit, the entire camp paused their travelling, and waited for her. Our Sages say that this was her reward for waiting for Moshe when his basket was placed in the Nile. Ask the children if they can think of another example in the Torah of when someone talks Lashon Hora, and is punished because of it? n E.g. 10 of the 12 spies, about the land of Israel. n Ask the children to give examples of Lashon Hora. E.g. Sometimes even speaking positively about someone is classed as Lashon Hora, as it may provoke someone else into saying something negative about them. n When the Bnei Yisrael were travelling, if they spoke Lashon Hora, they would get leprosy. Why is Lashon Hora so bad, that you got such an instant and visible punishment for it? n How would we feel now if we got such a punishment as leprosy? n Would this encourage us to not speak Lashon Hora again?
Youth service Ages 12-18 Dvar Torah Moshe transmitted Hashem s instructions to Aharon to light the Menorah daily, according to the regulations given to him. The Torah then informs us that Aharon did as he was told. Why do we need to be told this? Can we not assume that Aharon did as he was told? Rashi comments that the reason we are told that Aharon did as he was told, was to teach us that he did not change anything in the performance of this Mitzvah. Human nature is such that when someone has to perform an act regularly, repeating it daily, it becomes monotonous, and he eventually performs it perfunctorily, without enthusiasm and without interest. Aharon repeated the Mitzvah of lighting the Menorah every day, and one could believe that after the passage of time he would lose interest and just go through the motions without much concentration. However, the Torah wants to make the point that Aharon did the Mitzvah every day as if it were the first time, with enthusiasm, with eagerness and with zeal. A great example of this is davening as soon as we have learned all the prayers, we say them monotonously, because they are read so regularly, but if we focus our thoughts on the how and why of what we re saying, our prayers can take on a new and relevant meaning every time we say them.
igniting your shabbat services We hope you find our guide to this week s Parsha 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