igniting your shabbat services

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur

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

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year – the day on which we are closest to God. For 26 hours – from several minutes before sunset on 9th Tishrei to after nightfall on 10th Tishrei we abstain from food and drink, we do not wash our bodies and we do not wear leather shoes.

In the course of Yom Kippur we hold five prayer services:

n Ma’ariv, with its solemn Kol Nidrei service, on the eve of Yom Kippur

n Shacharit, the morning prayer

n Mussaf, which includes a detailed account of the Yom Kippur Temple service

n Mincha, which includes the reading of the Book of Jonah

n Ne’ilah, the “closing of the gates” service at sunset

The day is the most solemn of the year, yet there is an undertone of joy; a joy that expresses the confidence that God will accept our repentance, forgive our sins, and seal our verdict for a year of life, health and happiness.

Yom Kippur only makes sense after Rosh Hashanah. Once we have realised how important life is, then we are ready to change and to grow. That's what Yom Kippur is about. Yom Kippur literally means the Day of Atonement. Atonement means to make amends, to fix. It is the day we have been given to fix our lives.

Now you could say that every day we should be trying to fix things, and you'd be right. But Yom Kippur is special. We are normally so busy living that we have no time to step back and look at ourselves. Yom Kippur is a "life pause button." All the laws of this day point to this: we don't eat, we wear plain white and we don't work. These laws are not meant to restrict us, they are meant to encourage us to take time out, to think about what we are doing

The special prayers are all about what we have done wrong, all the mistakes we've made. They question our actions: how do we treat our parents? Are we rude? How Jewish are we? Do we give charity? Do we hide our mistakes? We don't have to get through all the prayers but we have to examine ourselves. The Sages who composed these prayers were very honest. They were willing to question every aspect of their lives and to put them under a critical microscope. The challenge is: can we do the same?!?

G’mar Chatimah Tovah

(May you be sealed for a good year)

FESTIval SUmmary

Yom Kippur

In the morning, the reading is about the Yom Kippur Service:

n The reading of the day comes from Vayikra / Leviticus, and quite appropriately, describes the Kohen Gadol’s (High Priest’s) Temple service of the day.

n It describes how the High Priest should repent for the sins of the Children of Israel.

n The portion talks about Yom Kippur being a complete Shabbat of Shabbats, a complete rest.

ParaSHa SUmmary

Yom KippurmIncHa HaFTaraH SUmmary

In the afternoon we read the book of Jonah in the Haftorah:

n We read the book of Jonah, one of the 12 Minor Prophets at Mincha on Yom Kippur.

n This tells the story of Jonah, a prophet who was instructed by God to travel to the gentile city of Nineveh and tell them to repent, or God would destroy the city.

n Rather than listening to God, Jonah ran away and boarded a ship at Tarshish, but God sent a big storm in which the ship was almost destroyed.

n Whilst Jonah hid below deck, the sailors looked for him and he admitted that God had sent the storm for him, so the sailors threw Jonah overboard into the sea. The storm then stopped and they then repented for their sins.

n Jonah was swallowed by a big fish, where he sat and prayed for three days and three nights, until he realised that he must obey God’s command and then the fish spat Jonah out onto dry land.

n God then told Jonah again to go to Nineveh and this time he listened, warning the people of Nineveh to repent.

n The people of Nineveh heeded Jonah’s warnings and sat in sack-cloth, repenting for their sins. God accepted their prayers and they were saved.

n Finally, Jonah was really depressed, so he begged God to kill him, but instead God created a Kikayon tree (probably a Carob tree) which provided shelter and relief, until God sent a worm to attack and destroy the tree.

n Jonah was very upset over the destruction of the tree, and God explained how much more upset He would have been if He would have had to destroy His creations in the city of Nineveh.

n From this story we learn about the power of repentance and the importance of listening to God.

Yom KippurTODDlErS SErvIcE

On Yom Kippur we say sorry to our friends for anything wrong which we might have done towards them. sing this song with the children to teach them about the importance of being nice to each other.

To the tune of ‘This Old Man’

Please don't fight,

It's not right,

Take my hands and

Hold on tight.

Best of friends we now will be

Won't you come and play with me.

Yom KippuryEar 1 & 2Ages 5-7

On Yom Kippur adults (anyone above the age of Bar or Bat Mitzvah) do not eat. Rather, they devote their time to praying to God. On the day before Yom Kippur, it is a mitzvah (good deed) to eat as much as we can. (Even if you’re under Bar or Bat Mitzvah so you’re not fasting, it is still a mitzvah to eat!)

Activity

n Play fruit basket with the children.

n All the children should sit on chairs in a circle, except for one child who stands in the middle.

n The children are all given names of four different fruit.

n The child in the middle calls out the name of a fruit, and anyone who is that fruit has to stand up, and swap places with another child who is that fruit. The child in the middle has to try and sit down on one of the chairs while everyone is moving around.

n If the child in the middle calls ‘fruit-basket’ then everyone has to get up and move.

Yom KippuryEar 3 & 4Ages 7-9

At Mincha (the Afternoon Service) of Yom Kippur we

read the story of Jonah and the big fish.

Activity:Split the children into groups and have them act out the story of Jonah and the Whale. It depends how many children there are, to how to split up the story and you can find the full version above, but here is a suggestion of how to abbreviate it;

n Jonah is told to go to Nineveh, but instead gets on a ship. There is a great storm while the ship is at sea.

n The sailors are frightened and pray to their Gods. When it doesn’t work, they realise it is because of Jonah, and he advises them to throw him in to the sea, which they do.

n Jonah is swallowed by a large fish, and prays to God.

n Jonah is spat out, and goes to Nineveh to deliver the message, that they need to repent. God accepts their repentance, which displeases Jonah.

n He sits in the sun, and God creates shade for him, and then takes it away. Jonah complains again.

n God explains that Jonah was mourning the loss of his temporary shade. How much more so would God have mourned the loss of the city of Nineveh, which He would have destroyed had they not repented.

Discussion Points

n What can we learn from the story of Jonah?

n Why do we read it specifically on Yom Kippur?

Yom KippuryEar 5 & 6Ages 9-11

Yom Kippur is the day when we repent for all our sins that we have committed over the past year.

Discussion Points:

n What is the point of Yom Kippur?

n What if someone is not feeling well, and is unable to fast, or unable to pray?

n Why do we not eat? Does this help us focus on our repentance or does it just distract us and make us tired?

n Would it be better to have a mini Yom Kippur every month, so we can repent more regularly?

n If we have Yom Kippur when we repent for our sins, does that mean there is no problem sinning during the year, as long as we repent properly on Yom Kippur?

Yom Kippur

Dvar TorahWe recently read the portions of "Nitzavim" and "Vayeilech." Our Rabbi’s remark that the Jewish people are regarded as "nitzavim," standing in one place, while Moshe is described as "va'yeilech," walking, moving along – this is an allusion to his continuous growth.

Moshe was constantly on a path of endless striving to attain yet loftier spiritual heights, while the people he was leading were, at times, indifferent to altering their status quo. If we become overly smug and satisfied with our current level of spiritual attainment, however positive it is, then we have lost an essential component of our innate Jewish nature. God instructs us ‘’you shall become holy" (Lev. 19:2), using the future tense, to teach that we must always yearn to become more holy. There is no such thing as "just staying put," – if we slack off in our upward climb, then, automatically, we will begin falling.

Years before Moshe, Avraham already taught us this lesson in life. God gave Avraham 10 tests, the greatest of which was the binding of Yitzchak on the altar. Avraham passed this test with flying colours, but rather than an automatic reward, in the next Torah portion we then read that his wife Sarah died. Avraham then had to pay an exorbitant sum of money, to secure the appropriate burial ground.

Life is one never-ending roller coaster of ups and downs that test the individual. Even though Avraham passed his 10 tests, his were never over. God was showing the world, through Avraham, that life is one constant struggle, to test the individual. Living at ease in this world is simply not the course for the Jewish people, nor should it be what we strive for.

What we should strive for, is to constantly better ourselves, and these 10 days of Repentance are an ideal time to reflect on what we have done in the past year, and how we can improve that for the coming year.

yOUTH SErvIcEAges 12-18

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.

G’mar Chatima Tova! May you be sealed for a good year

The Tribe Education Team

t: 020 8343 5656 e: info@tribeuk.com www.tribeuk.com