The Rashi School | Classroom Blog

Preparing Ourselves for the High Holidays:  One Word and Action at a Time! I recently read this:  Words matter. They are packages of power that can harm or help... And so my work with the First Grade Students began with reading our first two TREASURES of the year - Gershon's Monster  and Mr. Peabody's Apples .  Many of the social justice TREASURES read and discussed this year will be anchored in a particular Jewish text, mitzvah or Jewish value. I introduced the Ecclesiastes text below to lay the groundwork for reading and delving deep into the big messages of these two stories: Gershon's Monster retold by Eric Kimmel Smith What happens when a young man named Gershon sweeps his mistakes into his cellar every week, empties his mistakes in the sea every Rosh Hashanah and never says sorry or thinks twice about his words or actions? His mistakes catch up with him in a serious way!!!               Ask your child to share what were som

An Improbable Relic of Auschwitz:  A Shofar that Defied the Nazis Cry Aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a shofar.                                                                                           - Isaiah 58:1 As Rosh Hashanah approaches, we are mindful as Jews that a huge and meaningful opportunity is before us to do deep self reflection, right our wrongs, return to our best selves and "lift up our voices like a shofar." Over the generations, we have heard many stories of Jews who went to tremendous lengths to affirm their Judaism - even when that meant risking their lives. Recently a powerful story was shared in the New York Times about a shofar that was blown during the High Holidays in Auschwitz - amidst all odds - and how one survivor, Haskel Tydor, kept the story of this shofar and the shofar itself alive with his family. Now his daughter, Judith Tydor Schwartz, is sharing both the shofar and the incredible story behind it with the wo

Becoming "Bucket Fillers"   Preparing for Rosh Hashanah and the Year Ahead An interesting idea...from the moment we are born - we carry around an invisible bucket. It is our parents and family who show us our first acts of caring, love, support and kindness. And with every exchange where words and actions help us and others feel cared about, special, loved and proud - imagine that our invisible bucket fills up. So what kinds of things can we do and what kinds of words can we say that would help fill up another person's bucket?  Each kindergarten class were challenged to fill up a class bucket with recent examples of actions and words that they used and said to make someone else feel good. Important idea #1 - Every day we have an opportunity to help fill up our own buckets as well as others.  When our bucket is filled, we feel happy and good. When our bucket is dipped into and not full, we can feel sad or angry.