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 Yacov returns home to his father Yitzchak after 20 years. Sadly he returns to discover that his father had already passed away. n Yacov prepares to face his brother Esav in battle by dividing his family and possessions into two camps, praying for God to protect them, and by sending gifts to Esav. n Yacov encounters the angel of Esav during the night, and wrestles with him until morning. n The angel touches Yacov s leg causing him to have a limp. n Yacov refuses to allow the angel to leave before he gives Yaacov a blessing. The angel blesses Yacov that his name will be changed to Israel. n Yacov and Esav meet. Esav embraces Yacov and they both weep. n Yacov s daughter Dina is kidnapped by the men of (the city of) Shechem. n Two of her brothers, Shimon and Levi, kill all the men of Shechem in order to rescue Dina, but Yacov is displeased by their actions. n Rachel dies en route to Hebron whilst giving birth to Binyamin. n Yitzchak dies, and is buried in the Cave of Machpelah.
Pre-nursery to Reception Tots In this week s parasha, Yacov gives Esav lots of presents to try and appease him. Here is a song about the present that God has given us. God gave us a present (to the tune of Vahehi Bishurun Melech ): God gave us a present, Do you know what it was? He gave us the Torah and we must keep its laws He asked some other people: Do you want this gift of Mine? But they said No thank you for, Torah there s no time. And then to the Jewish People, God did go X2 We said Naaseh ve nishma, cause we love our God so
YEAR 1 & 2 Ages 5-7 In this week s parasha, Yacov sends lots of gifts to Esav, his brother who he has not seen for a very long time. He sends him goats, rams, camels, cows and donkeys. Play the following game with the children: Going to the party game This is a memory game where each child has to remember all the gifts said by the previous people, in the right order, and then add a gift of their own. n The first person says: I m going to a party and I m going to bring.. n The next person says: I m going to a party and I m going to bring.. &.. n The next person: I m going to a party and I m going to bring.. &.. &. n When someone forgets a gift, they are out of the game.
YEAR 3 & 4 Ages 7-9 While preparing to meet Esav, Yacov divides his family and possessions into two groups. He does this in the hope that even if one group does not survive the encounter with Esav, hopefully the other group will. Also, when Yacov battled with Esav s angel, he touched him on his hip which left Yacov with a permanent limp. Divide the children into two teams and play Catch the Flag Play the game Call my bluff with the children: n Each team should be lined up against two walls of the room, and each team member is given a number. (Both teams should have the same numbers as each other. E.g. If there are 12 children, each team will be numbered from 1 to 6.) n An item (e.g. a flag) is placed on the floor, exactly half way between the two teams. n The leader calls out a number, (there will be someone with that number from both teams), and they both have to try and get the flag, and get back to their team, without being touched by their opposing team member. n If you manage to get back to your team with the flag, without being touched, then you win a point for your team. If you are touched by your opponent, then they win the point for their team. Discussion Points; n Was this a good military tactic? Should he have split his family between the two groups, or kept them all together? n Is there anything else that Yaacov could have done in preparation for meeting Esav?
YEAR 5 & 6 Ages 9-11 Yacov was scared to meet up with his twin brother Esav, so he prepared himself for a possible war. He also sent him gifts though, to try and make up with him and prevent a fight. Discussion Points n What would you do to make up with someone you have had an argument with? What lengths would you go to for peace? n In last week s parasha, Esav said he wanted to kill Yacov. Why do you think he changed his mind? n After Yacov s fight with the angel, his name is changed to Yisrael. What did this signify for Yacov? n If you were to change your name, what would you change it to and why? The significance of names n The angel that fought with Yacov blessed him by changing his name. The name Yacov is the personal name that he had from birth, given to him by his parents. It described a specific action of his when he was born and he held on to the AKEV, the heel of his brother. n ISRAEL is the name the angel gave Yacov. This was an elegant name which described how he successfully overcame the powers that attempted to destroy him. It literally means struggling with God which describes Yacov s turbulent life, but always with God by his side. It is also the name used to refer to all of Yacov s descendants, BNEI YISRAEL - The Children of Israel.
Youth service Ages 12-18 Dvar Torah In this week s parasha, Yacov receives the news that his wicked and vengeful brother Esav, (who in last week's parasha threatened to kill him), is planning to arrive with 400 of his men. Rashi, (a commentator on the Torah), points out that upon hearing the news, Yacov has three choices before him: to appease Esav through gifts, to prepare for war with him, and to pray. Yaacov chose to utilize all three options, but the order in which he chose to implement them is significant, because prayer is not the first thing that he did. It seems surprising that Yacov, one of our forefathers, did not immediately turn to God for help. This gives us an important insight into what prayer is all about. Belief in the power of prayer is also the belief in our responsibility to make a supreme effort. Prayers are only meaningful and effective when preceded by serious action and intent. God creates situations where we are faced with a choice, because through that conflict and choice we have the ability to grow and realise our true potentials. Yes, we need His help, but to sit around and pray for everything in life, without ever making an effort, is to misread why the situation happened in the first place. Yacov tried to use whatever means he could to avoid a fight with Esav, and he also prayed to God to assist him in this situation. Neither would have worked without the other. We can learn from Yacov that we must always make efforts in our own lives, while knowing that God is there protecting us, sustaining us, and watching over us with love.
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