igniting your shabbat services

Shelach Lecha

Shelach Lecha

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

Shelach Lecha

n The parasha begins with the commandment to send spies to the land of Israel, and report back about it.

n Moshe gives them instructions on what they should look for while they are there.

n After 40 days, the spies return and report that it is a land flowing with milk and honey. However, the people that dwelling there are powerful and very great, like giants.

n Calev and Joshua, two of the spies, try to convince the Jewish people that they are still able to conquer the land, but there is national hysteria, with the people saying ‘why has God brought us out of Egypt, to die in the Land of Israel?.’

n God then threatens Israel with extermination, because they are still questioning Him, even after the miracle of the splitting of the sea.

n Moshe prays for the people, and God forgives them, but decrees 40 years of wandering in the desert, before we will be allowed into to the land of Israel.

n We are given the mitzvah of challah.

n The parasha ends by talking about the punishments for worshiping idols intentionally and desecrating Shabbat.

ParaSHa SUmmary

Shelach LechaPrE-nUrSEry TO rEcEPTIOnTots

Parasha SongIn this week’s parasha we read that when we are making Challah (bread) for Shabbat, we should separate a part, to give to God.

Sing the following song;

Tune: Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake

Pat a cake, pat a-cake baker's man,

Bake me a challah as fast as you can,

Mix it and knead it as quick as you're able,

So we can have it for our Shabbat table

Activity;

Ask the children if they like Challah and what their

favorite thing about it is?

Ask them for an adjective to finish this sentence:

'Challah is...........' e.g. tasty, soft, yummy etc.

Shelach LechayEar 1 & 2Ages 5-7

In this week’s parasha we learn about Moshe sending spies in to the land of Israel. They have to find out information about it, and then report back to the Jewish people. Unfortunately, 10 of the 12 spies come back with negative reports, because they were scared by what they had seen there. God is upset with them, because He had hoped that after miracles such as the Red Sea, they would realize that He can do anything so they would be protected.

Activity:

Ask the children to do the following, (for an added challenge, say they cannot

speak either!);

n Play the game blind man’s keys with the children.

n All the children should sit on chairs in a circle, and one child should be

blindfolded. Under that child’s chair there should be some keys, or another

item.

n Another child is chosen to be the spy, and their aim is to walk around the

circle of chairs, retrieve the keys and go back to their seat, all without

being discovered. (Similar to the spies in Israel, who did not want to be

discovered by the people they were spying on.)

n The blindfolded child has to try and capture the other child, using their

hearing. If they can hear where the child is, they should point in that

direction. If they are right, they have caught the spy.

n If the spy manages to sit down with the keys, undetected, then their

mission was successful!

Shelach LechayEar 3 & 4Ages 7-9

The story of the spies has so many interesting parts to it. 12 spies were sent, and they all saw the same thing, but came back with different reports. How can this be?

What the spies said (with the positive and negative ways of viewing it;)

The fruit was huge

n Food that is so large could only have been produced for giants, who would obviously be more physically powerful than us.

n It was so big and beautiful, that it had to be carried on two poles.

“In every place which we passed we found the inhabitants burying their dead"

n The Land through which we have passed, to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants!

n • In fact, God had caused many deaths amongst them at that time, and so the Canaanites were engaged in burying their dead. This proved beneficial for the spies, because the giants were occupied with their mourning and paid no attention to the spies.

A famous example; Back in the early 1950's a large shoe consortium with stores across the United States, decided to take their business venture into the emerging continent of Africa. They sent two of their salesman to explore the prospects of business in the remote villages across the Continent. After just one week, they received a cable from the first salesman: "I am returning at once. No hope for business. Nobody here wears shoes!" They did not hear from the second salesman for four weeks. Then one day an urgent cable arrived. "Send 15,000 pairs of shoes at once! I have leased space in five locations. Will open chain of stores. This place is filled with opportunity. Nobody has shoes!"

Activity; Split the children in to two groups. Tell them one of the following sentences, and ask one group to come up with a positive way to view it, and the other group, a negative way.

Example; My mother is in hospital

Positive: She has just given birth to a new baby, both are doing well!

Negative: She is very unwell.

1. Shoshi is not going to camp this summer with her friends.

2. David is playing football, even though he has not finished his homework.

3. This new subject is very challenging.

Shelach LechayEar 5 & 6Ages 9-11

The story of the spies has so many interesting parts to it. 12 spies were sent, and they all saw the same thing, but came back with different reports. But why were the punishments so severe?

For the 10 spies; they all died in a plague.

For the Jewish people who listened to them; all of those above the age of twenty would die in the wilderness. Further, because the spy mission took forty days, the nation would wander aimlessly in the wilderness for forty years.

Did you know; The day when the spies came back, and the Jews wailed about their misfortunes… it was the 9th Av! This day later became infamous due to the destruction of two Temples, the signing of the Spanish Inquisition, the outbreak of World War 1 and the liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto during the Holocaust, amongst other things. The 9th of Av is a hallmark of Jewish misfortunes.

What really was the problem?

The Hebrew word for the verb "to spy" is leragel, and a spy is a meragel. Interestingly, Moshe never instructs the spies "leragel," rather he tells them "latur," to "explore." Throughout the episode we read about their "exploring" the Land.

What's the difference? Explorers merely "examine for the purpose of discovery," while spies "observe secretively or furtively with hostile intent". Moshe never instructed his delegates to spy; all he wanted was a factual report of what they saw. Whether or not the Land was conquerable was not an issue, they were not asked to supply a report regarding the feasibility of that task. After all, Hashem had promised them the Land, and would certainly ensure their victory in battle.

Their sin was this minute deviation from what they were told to do. What started as a mere subjective assessment of how they would militarily conquer the land, ended up in them saying "for they are stronger than He," doubting the ability of the Almighty God Himself.

Shelach Lecha

Dvar TorahThe Torah states: "And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight" (Numbers 13:33). The Kotzker Rebbe said that the mistake of the spies was in the words "and so we were in their sight." It should not bother a person how others view him.

A person who worries about how others view him will have no rest. Regardless of what he does or does not do, he will always be anxious about receiving the approval of others. Such a person makes his self-esteem dependent on the whims of others. It is a mistake to give others so much control over you. Keep your focus on doing what is right and proper. Work on mastering the ability to have a positive self-image regardless of how others view you. If people give you constructive criticism because of things you are doing wrong, you should appreciate the opportunity to improve. However, do not allow your self-image to be dependent on the arbitrary approval and disapproval of others.

The Chafetz Chaim commented, ‘When you view yourself as inferior, you will assume that others also view you in this manner. The truth could very well be that the other person views you in a much higher manner’. We should realize our intrinsic value as a being created in the image of God and we will feel much more comfortable around other people.

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.

Shabbat Shalom!

The Tribe Education Team

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