Today we read A Mezuzah on the Door,By Amy Meltzer. In the book Noah's mom explained to him that a mezuzah contains the words of the Shema (literally, "hear" or "listen"). The words of the Shema come from the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. In the Torah's final book, Deuteronomy, we find these words of the Shema: "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One". This single sentence is considered the crux of Judaism, the affirmation of the Jewish people's belief in one God. These words lead to three paragraphs that include references to a mezuzah being placed, as a reminder, on the "doorposts of your homes..."
The book also explained how both the Torah and the mezuzah are handwritten in Hebrew by a sofer, a scribe. We talked about how we are going to draw a picture of a blessing we have, for our family to place inside our mezuzah with the words of the Shema.
After circle time we started decorating our mezuzah. The children took little pieces of clay and worked with it for a while(rolled, pinched, pushed and then placed it on their mezuzah. They selected their colors carefully and deliberately. Each child's mezuzah is unique and quite colorful I might add. The children were so proud to show everyone that came into the room today, their very own mezuzah!
Tomorrow we will bake them in the oven and the last step is a surprise that we will share with parents at our Shabbat Shindig gathering! We can't wait!
What an incredible project- that it grew out of a request by Lily to have a mezuzah for home, that you are focusing not just on the creation process but on the shema and torah and their centrality to Judaism, and that the families are involved in the process as well. The multiple layers of value here are stunning. Can't wait to see how it progresses over the next few days.
ReplyDeleteEzra is so excited about making his own Mezuzah (even if he can't say it). As a parent of older children, who have come home with other variations on learning about and "making mezuzahs", I love that fact that they are making a REAL mezuzah that we can really hang on Ezra's door (and not a decorated toilet paper tube with a roll of paper in it). Just because they are 4 doesn't mean that they aren't capable of making real and lasting items. Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteSo exciting! Thank you.
ReplyDeletecan't wait to see the finished product
ReplyDeleteEli is SO proud of his mezuzah!
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