We welcome the Torah on Shabbat in community. As we began to discuss the joyous occasion of the Simchat Torah we explained that this holiday was special because it was a celebration of the gift of the Torah to Moses and the Jewish people by G-d. We asked the children what they knew about the Torah. Their responses were: "it had Hebrew letters, it was very, very, very special, and it was in every classroom." We agree the Torah is our very special gift from G-d, filled with stories that when read really help us to be better people. It takes a scribe/sofer a year to write the Torah. The pages are hand sewn not glued like one might expect. We asked the children to think about ways that they can make a difference and establish guidelines that would would be helpful reflecting on both actions and words.
The following are the guidelines the children dictated:
1) "Do stuff that is nice, give people what they need."
2) Sharing, give money to Hebrew people."
3) "Be sure you're ok"
4) "You can play and you can share."
5) "Pick up trash, and ask if you're ok"
6) "Go around the monkey bars, say are you ok?, hugging people.I know you wnat to do this but agree with one another and go one at a time."
7) "I can clean up in the woods."
8) "Put scissors on the table"
9) "Say are you ok? You can give hug."
10) "Wait your turn to go down the slide., stay with your mom and dad, help people put their things away."
11) "Be nice and say please and thank you."
12) "Take care of toys and be gentle."
We finished sewing our Torah together and read it together using a yad. We told the children that perhaps one day they may want to be a scribe. We explained that it take a very long time to write but also to study in order to be a scribe.
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