Dear Youth Directors

Dear Youth Directors,

We are proud to announce that we are expanding our Youth Services Department! Our first goal is to lend support to all of our talented Youth Directors in the form of weekly youth programing. Every week you will receive via email distinctprograms for K-2, 3-4, 5-6th grade groups and Teen Minyan. Each group’s material is age appropriate, while allowing each shul to address topics across the age groups for all their Shabbat morning groups.

We have chosen to start this program with Sefer Vayikrah. On the surface, the book of Vayikra seems to focus mainly on korbanot (sacrifices), which children may feel are not relevant in the absence of a Beit Hamikdash. However, when one delves deeper into the entire book, it clearly centers around the theme of kedusha (holiness). There are many different levelsof understanding of this complex topic,but we are focusing on keeping kedusha alive in our youth. In a world where holiness is difficult to find, one of the ways one can obtain thistrait is to be guided and influenced by positive role models and leaders.

This year’s Parsha Nation theme is manhigut (leadership). Our goal this year is to infuse passion, creativity and love of yiddishkeit into Shabbat morning groups. Each week our program guides will help youth directors incorporate this year’s theme withinspirational stories, fun games, thought-provoking questions and enjoyable activities.

The instructions for this program are found below. Each section was designed to give our youth leaders a blueprint for a successful Shabbat morning group. Please feel free to modifyany section you feel is not relevant to the running of your youth program. This is only meant as a helpful guide.

I would like to thankour new Youth Services Coordinator, Sammy Schaechter, who created these guides. Sammy has a treasure trove of ideas to help our youth departments function more efficiently and effectively.

Please share your feedback with Sammy and me.

Yours Truly,

Ari Matityahu

Assistant Director, Synagogue Services

Program Guide Breakdown

Theme- Each year our curriculum will focus on a theme. By centering the entire year around one overarching theme, our youth group participants will understand different characteristics and concepts that will help them achieve this lofty goal. This year’s theme is Manhigut (leadership).Our goal is for our children to view themselves as leaders and to inspire them to play a leadership role every day.

Parsha Roundup- Each week group leaders will have the opportunity to roundup the parsha in two or three paragraphs. By giving over the parsha in a short and simple way, group participants will be able to grasp the parsha as a whole and to get them to think globally and conceptually.

Parsha Questions- No Shabbat morning group is complete without a list of parsha questions. These questions allow group participants the opportunity to win fun prizes while increasing their Torah knowledge. Questions vary from basic understanding of story line to challenging source-based material. The answers are provided as well.

Tefillah Treasure- Many youth directors have asked for help when it comes to teaching tefillah to children. This is a problem that not only shuls are dealing with. Schools, camps, and youth organizations are having trouble developing creative ideas to help children understand tefillah. Over the course of the year, this section will highlight one aspect of davening by providing both the Hebrew and English text, and one explanatory idea. The older the age group, the more we delve into the idea. This section is designed to help group participants follow the flow of tefillah while understanding what they are saying.

Group Activity-Now the fun begins! We start off with a GOAL. Each game has a purpose. The youth leaders should familiarize themselves with the goal before implementing the game.

Discussion Portion- After the game is over and the participants are settled down, the youth leaders should facilitate a discussion. The guidelines for this discussion are broken down into easy to use instructions. Youth leaders should review the discussion topics and goals before the start of morning groups.

Story- Each week we will include a story that addresses a modern day concern with lesson taken from that week’s parsha.

Jewish Leader of the Week- In keeping with our theme of Manhigut, every week a different Jewish Leader from modern Jewish history will be highlighted. This will allow group participants to expand their knowledge of history and to learn how they can be a Jewish leader in today’s society.

Teen Minyan Packet- This packet is filled with stories, riddles, points to ponder, and more.

Leader Tip- Each section has some great tips for leaders and how they should conduct that section.

Shabbat Morning Groups Lesson Plan

Time Duration / Activity / Notes
5 min / Registration / Welcome parents and children in to the group room.
10-35 min / Davening / Depending on your group size and level.
5 min / Introduction to Yearly Theme (Manhigut) / Refer to Handout
5 min / Parsha Roundup / Prep participants for parsha questions.
10 min / Parsha Questions / Prizes and awards should also be given out if participants answer correctly
2 min / Understanding the Goal / Leaders should start prepping for Shabbat activity
30 min / Activities / Your choice of two games to play
10 min / Follow Up Discussion / Refer to materials
10 min / Parsha Song / This is for younger groups only.
20 min / Free Game Play / Groups can break for free game play or continue their own programing.
5 min / Story / Assemble in a circle and have participants read sections of the story out loud.
5-10 min / Discussion / Refer to handout
4min / Jewish Leader of the Week / Refer to handout
4 min / Tefillah Treasures / Refer to Handout
5 min / Parent Pick up/Dismissal / Parents pick up their children.
Total Time: / 2 hours40 min of programing!

Acharei Mot Roundup

After the two sons of Aaron died (in Parshah Shemini), G-d warns against anybody going into the special chamber of the Miskan called the Holy of Holies. Only Aaron himself may enter, once a year, on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year. Another thing done on Yom Kippur is that two goats are taken and a lottery is made. One goat is offered to G-d and the second one, to "azazel", is sent to the wilderness to atone for the sins of the Jews.

Other important warnings in the Parshah of Acharie: It is forbidden to bring a korban (sacrifice), anywhere but in the Holy Temple. It is forbidden to eat blood in any way (this is why all kosher meat is salted--to take out the blood, and why we check eggs for blood before using); and a discussion of those who we are forbidden to marry.

Questions

When is Yom kippur?
Who performed the entire Avodat Yom Hakipurim?
What did the Bnei Yisrael do while the kohen gadol did the avodah on Yom Kippur?
What is forbidden Yom Kippur?
Where did the kohen gadol go only on Yom Kippur?
Why may we not eat the dam (blood) of the animals that we eat?
What do we do to meat in order to remove the blood?
What types of sins are forgiven on Yom Kippur
What do we have to do to be forgiven for aveirot that are bein adam lachaveiro (between one person and another)?
What is the difference between mishpat and chok?

Answers

The tenth of Tishrei
The kohen gadol
They davened and did teshuvah.
There is no eating, drinking, washing, wearing leather shoes or smearing of oils. Also, no work is permitted (like on Shabbat).
The kodesh kodashim (The Holy of Holies).
Because the nefesh (soul) is in it.
We soak and salt it.
Those between man and Hashem – bei adam lemakom.
We must ask for mechilah (forgiveness).
A mishpat conforms to the human sense of justice. A chok is a law whose reason is not given to us and can only be understood as a decree from Hashem.

GOAL: In this week’s Parsha, Hashem instructs Bnei Israel not to follow the bad ways of other people. In this activity, we are trying to teach the kids about the dangers of peer pressure. Sometimes it’s very difficult to stand up for ourselves and make the right decisions based on our own decisions. When there are friends of ours or big groups of other people saying otherwise, it can be very hard not to follow them. It’s important to try and surround ourselves with the right people who will make a good influence on us.

ACTIVITY:“Indian Chief”

The kids sit in a circle. One kid leaves the room. Then the kids pick one kid to be the Indian chief or leader. The point of the game is that the Indian chief will start different hand motions (hand clapping, slapping your knees, snapping your fingers, drumming on the ground… etc), which all the kids will do in unison, and the Indian chief will keep switching the motions every so often. The kid who was outside has to try and guess which other kid is the Indian chief and leading the motions. The Indian chief and the kids have to try and make sure that it’s not obvious who the Indian chief is. If the kid picks correctly, then that kid must go outside and a new chief is chosen.

DISCUSSION:The idea behind this game is to teach the kids about peer pressure. Being in the middle, how does it feel that everyone around you isn’t only doing something than you, but is trying to get you to join them even though you already made your decision and have no initial interest in joining them? Is it hard to stay strong in your beliefs? When there’s a big group of people doing something, do you feel pressure to join them? Peer pressure is very difficult to overcome. If we surround ourselves with not so good people or bad decisions/actions/characteristics, then we are going to adopt those and become those people/do those bad actions. But on the other hand, if we surround ourselves by good influences, imagine what impact they can have on us and we can continue to make the right decisions and become the best people we can possibly be.

Before you read:It's natural to act like the people around us - but sometimes we shouldn't. In this week's Torah portion (Lev. 18:3) God instructs the Jewish people not to copy the bad habits of the nations around them. So too, we should try to stick around people with positive behavior and values, and only copy the good things the people around us do.

SPILLED MILK

The bus rambled down the dirt road and turned onto the gravel parking lot, letting off 60 city kids on their school field trip for a day of 'fun on the farm.'

"Should we join the horseback riding group first, go to the tractor garage, or with the guys going to milk the cows?" Jon asked his friend, Dave.

"Let's go to the cows - I see that's where Steve and his buddies are going," Dave said and started to walk. Jon didn't move.

"Well?" Dave asked him.

"I think that's a good reasonnotto go there," Jon said.

"Whadaya mean?"

"You saw how those guys acted on the bus - ragging on the driver and throwing trash out the window. That's not cool, you know? And it's not the way I want to be."

"Who said we have tobelike them? We'll just hang around them - you've got to admit they make things exciting - and we'll act like ... ourselves. You coming or not?"

Dave reluctantly agreed and the two boys rushed to the cow barn, where the demonstration was about to start.

"This dairy produces over twenty thousand gallons of milk per day," the farm employee leading the tour said with a smile, "and then it's packaged and shipped to..."

"Booooring!" a shout came for the middle of the crowd of kids. The man talking paused, looking flushed and embarrassed at Steve's rude comment, as some of the kids - mostly Steve's buddies - laughed. Jon gave Dave an 'I told you so' look, but his friend just shrugged.

Then the kids took turns milking some of the cows. That all went pretty well until it was Steve's turn, when the cow he had given a hard slap loudly bucked up and down in its pen. This time most of the kids - including Dave - burst out laughing.

"Since when is hurting an animal funny?" Jon snapped. Dave was quiet, realizing Jon was right.

It was time to go. The kids got on the bus with their generous refreshment bags of farm-fresh snacks they'd been given for the ride.

"Bombs away!" yelled out Steve, as he chucked one of his snack wrappers out the bus window. Some of his buddies did the same. Dave was about to do it as well - when he stopped himself. He hated littering - why was he suddenly doing that, just because Steve...

"Should we go to the mall when we get home?" Jon asked, interrupting his friend's thought.

"Huh? Yeah, that's what we planned to do, right? But first I've gotta go home to shower and change. After that trip we smell a little 'farm-y' you know what I mean?"

"Yeah," laughed Jon. "I guess you can't spend time in a cow barn and expect to come out smelling like roses."

"Nope," Dave said. "And I guess you were right after all - you can't spend time with guys acting bad and not expect to start to 'smell' like them either."

Discussion Questions

Q. How did Dave feel about hanging out with Steve and his gang at first?
A. Even though he knew they didn't behave properly, he didn't think it would affect him.

Q. How did he feel in the end?
A. He realized that their bad behavior was rubbing off on him, too.

The Chofetz Chaim

(February 6, 1838- September 15, 1933)

Born in Zhetel, Poland, Israel Meir Kagan, better known as the Chofetz Chaim, was a very influential Lithuanian rabbi in the Musar movement, which inspired people to be the best people they can be. As his reputation grew, students from all over Europe flocked to him and by 1869 his house became known as the Radin Yeshiva. He published 21 books and is very famous for his teachings about the laws of lashon hara- guarding the way we speak and watching our tongue.

Boruch.....Po-kay-ach Iv-rim.

"Blessed are You… Who gives sight to the blind."

Now theBrachotfollow the order of what we generally do to get ready for our day... First we open our eyes (blink a couple of times) and look around, happy to have another day of life!

Imagine that rather than starting each day “fully loaded” and ready to go, you needed to be re-equipped each morning with the faculties and abilities required for productive daily life. There you are, lying in bed, surrounded by complete darkness, waiting for G-d to return your eyesight to you. When will He bestow it? At last, light and shadows come into view, then colors, and finally, it all snaps into focus and you can see! POKEI’ACH IVRIM!

Leader Tip:This is one of the most important sections in Parsha nation. After davening has taken place in your group and you are up to this section have all the kids take a siddur and open it. Show them which page the brachot are on. Be confident, and don’t mumble when reading the brachot in Hebrew. Ask for participation from the kids. I’m sure they know how to read some of the words. And of course always ask follow up questions.

Acharei Mot Roundup