With Yom Kippur just around the corner, we decided to focus on what it's really about! Renewing and strengthening our connection to Hashem.
To really bring this idea to life we brought a visual into our class.
Using our dolls Sara and Rivka, we showcased the special bond these friends had, by tying a rope connecting them to each other. But when one friend was mean to the other, their connection was broken.
This is what happens when we do things that Hashem does not want us to do, we become disconnected from Hashem
But when Sara and Rivka said sorry and fixed it, they felt close again, the string was retied!
And the string was shorter! When we reconnect to Hashem on Yom Kippur, we get even closer to Him!
Practicing tying knots and fastenings.
In order to truly reconnect and fix our mistakes, we need to do 3 things.
1. We need to feel sorry
2. We need to say what we did wrong
3. We need to fix it for the future.
Meir looks at a picture to see what needs to be fixed.
Making our own erasable art piece, even if we make mistakes, we can fix them!
Sorting our actions
Which of our behaviors should we treasure and keep for after Yom Kippur, which belong in the trash? placing pictures of different behaviors in the correct spot!
Before Yom Kippur, there is a tradition to ask and receive from a person "Lekach" (a piece of honey cake). The reson behind this, is that if it was decreed that we would need to "beg" for food this year, this should be the action needed to fulfil it, and we should not have to ever again.
Painting with cinnamon infused paint!
On Yom Kippur, all of our actions are to do our best to connect and get close to Hashem! We don't want to do anything that separates us from Hashem. That's why Mommies and Daddies don't eat or drink on Yom Kippur, because if we are not eating, we are more like "Malachim" angels, who don't need food. The angels spend all of their time doing whatever Hashem wants, so we spend most of Yom Kippur davening, praising Hashem.
Yom Kippur Shule Center
All of our friends practicing to read from prayer books, and sit quietly in a shule. We wanted to make sure we knew how to put on a tallis properly! To help us figure that out we searched it up on a video- to learn exactly how!
We talked about the prayer "Elokai Neshama" - that we are thanking Hashem
that we have a Neshama, a piece of Hashem inside of us.
Yanky roleplays being the Morah and Chazan.
No Leather Shoes on Yom Kippur
Checking our shoes to see if we have leather in them,
we want to show Hashem that we want to connect with Him,
leather shoes are more fancy and focus on the physical. We want to be more humble.
Tracing our non-leather shoes.
While stretching these rubber bands, we noticed that they always want to go back together! Our neshama always wanst to connect to Hashem! Decorating our Yom Kippur project.
Thank you to the Lackner family for your gift in honor of Meir's birthday.
We are loving this book "What Should Danny Do", teaching us how to make the right choices!
We have grown so much from last year to this year, just like the strawberries that we spied growing in the garden.
