Festivals | Tishrei
Rosh Hashana: Activity Ideas for Class and Group
by Dov Goldflam & Gila Ansell Brauner
1. Name to Fame - Date of Fate
Background
The name of the month, Tishrei, is of Babylonian origin and means
"Beginning". Tishrei is the first month of the Jewish year.
In the Bible, Malachi I, Ch. VIII, v.2, we find another name for
the month, "Yerach Eitanim" - the "moon of the stalwarts" - because
our forefathers were born in this month - and they are the pillars
of the world.
The zodiac sign for this month is scales or balances, presumably
because day and night are of equal length. According to tradition,
too, this is the month when the deeds of Creation are judged.
The first and second of Tishrei are the festival of Rosh
Hashana, the Jewish New Year, ie, the day from which
we calculate dates, and the beginning of the Ten Days
of Penitence, also known as "Ben Kesseh Le'Assor",
where Kesseh refers to Rosh Hashana and Assor to
the tenth day, Yom Kippur, i.e. the "period between
Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur".
Rosh Hashana is also - in itself - "The Day of Judgment".
On Rosh Hashana, too, our foremothers - Sarah and Rivka - conceived,
as did Hannah, mother of the prophet Shemuel [Samuel].
Activity
Aim: Clarification and personalization of the
meaning of Rosh Hashana, individually and at broader levels.
Suitability: 13/14 plus, students, family programmes.
Procedure:
Note: Divide into pairs for the first question; join 2 pairs for
the second question; join two fours for the third question.
- Groups are given 2 minutes [or more] to answer each question.
- After the 3rd question is answered, bring everyone together
to examine parallels and differences in individual and group
responses. Attempt to draw basic categories; ask whether -
as a result of the third question - there are any additions
to the first response; examine implications of community upon
the individual and vice versa. Discuss how idealistic/realistic
the responses are...
Questions:
- What do I wish myself for this year?
- What do I wish my family in the New Year?
- What do I wish my community and the People of Israel in the
coming year?
Alternative Activity
Aim: Enable students to review personal development
and achievement in Jewish terms; older students: self-evaluation
as a key to future development; acknowledge student progress.
Suitability: From 10 onwards; older students at
greater levels of sophistication.
Preparation:
Certificates of Merit, with student's names and space for two
topics and a short comment, signed by an appropriate person [community
figure, principal, madrich, teacher, even parent!]
Poster board for the whole room [see 1, below] and felt tip/marker
pens. One enlarged copy of a blank certificate.
Procedure:
Note: You may decide to have students fill in the certificates
themselves, or to have them filled in by the "office" [you!] and
extend this activity into an award ceremony!
- Around the walls of the room, spread poster or brown paper
with a column prepared for each participant. In the middle
of one wall, hang an enlarged, blank certificate.
- Draw the group's attention to the blank certificate, and explain
that everyone is going to get one for his or her achievements
in the past year.
Ask what sort of achievements these could be [brainstorm].
Our suggestions are:
helping out at home; books read, behaviour to brothers & sisters;
sport; youth club/movement participation; progress at school;
volunteer work; brachot; special or outstanding behaviour
to anyone...
- Privately, each student is asked to write down one or two
topics he or she would like to see on their own certificate.
These do not have to be revealed to the group at this stage,
although the moderator should try to gain an impression and
assist those having difficulty in finding a noteworthy item
for their award.
- Divide the group into four. Each section is allotted one wall.
Individually - absolutely without consultation - participants
can write suggestions for award topics in the named columns
on "their" wall only.
The rule is that these topics can only be
positive; try to ensure that participants take this seriously
and that something goes down in every column.
- Now allow time for everyone to take a walk all the way around
the room. Participants can compare what has been written about
them with what they chose for themselves.
- With adolescents and young adults:
Sit everyone down and ask if they learnt something new about
how we see each other and how other people see themselves.
What about how they see themselves? Did they receive any surprises?
any helpful input?
This section of the activity will require careful and balanced
moderation!
- For everyone: Individuals now choose what they would like
to have finally on their award certificate - and have them
explain why.
- Award ceremony.
2. Sayers and Prayers
There are many notable moments in the special services for Rosh
Hashana, which you may wish to list with an older class, and discuss
what each portrays, what its main characteristics are, and what
its function is - as relevant to your programme. We bring two
major examples, below:
Activities
For younger children :
The Shofar
Aims: Bring children closer to the Rosh Hashana
service; exploration and acquisition of significance of the service;
provide hands-on experience.
Procedure:
- Invite a person who blows the shofar competently in the synagogue
to your next class. Ask the person to prepare a few
words about the origins of the shofar, how he feels when blowing
it, its importance, etc. It should, ideally, be someone who
is prepared to allow the children a try at blowing tekiyot!
- Prepare your class with questions they will want to ask -
how to do it, how many times, when the shofar is blown, how
to look after it...
- Prepare large posters of the Hebrew words [with transcription?]
associated with the tekiyot.
- The encounter:
Introduce the guest - let him introduce himself and blow the
shofar, using the different tekiyot.
Give the children a chance to ask questions before producing
ready-made explanations: the guest should try to provide explanations
only where questions are not forthcoming.
Ask the children how they feel when they hear the shofar today,
or on Rosh Hashana, then what they know about the origins
of and reasons for blowing the shofar...
- The conclusion:
Review what the children learnt and how they felt. Older primary
schoolers can look at background books; younger children can
do an art or visuals activity.
For intermediate or younger children:
Melody and Meaning
Aims: Improve acquaintance with the service; Hebrew
language study; explain parallel of song with the Jewish people
and G-d.
Procedure:
- Use enlarged text to study and teach the song "Haben yakir
li Efrayim" and its literal meaning.
- Look up the original text, both in the Rosh Hashana Service
for the second day, in the Haftara, and in the Book of Jeremiah
Ch.31. Explain who Efrayim was and draw the parallel. Discuss
G-d's love for His people.
For intermediate and older students:
Tashlich
Aim: Explore making decisions to change and contend
with the implications at an individual and group level.
Preparation: Copies of the prayer; breadcrumbs
in packets...
Note: The discussion can be commenced at a meeting prior to the ceremony
or can be integrated with it. The issues are complementary to those
presented in the first two activities, above.
Procedure:
- Discuss with the group/class what sort of general actions
people would want to change or avoid in the coming year.
- Silently, individually, each participant reflects on one or
any number of things they have done which they would like
to erase or "throw away".
- Study the text and origins of the "TASHLICH" ceremony. Note
that it is a very private act, compared - say - to the "VIDUI"
[Confession] recited with the congregation in the Yom Kippur
services. Discuss this different emphasis.
- After the Tashlich ceremony, discuss how people felt during
it - and how they feel about the future [decisions, realism,
willpower, freedom of choice...].
For teenagers:
Unetaneh Tokef
The "piyut" [liturgical poem] which is known by its first words
"Unetaneh Tokef", was written by Rabbi Amnon of Magenza and its
substance deals entirely with "KIDDUSH HASHEM", the Sanctification
of G-d's Name, in public.
Use Rabbi Amnon's life story, study the text and analyze the concept
as presented in it. Proceed from this to a general definition
of what the students view as "Kiddush Hashem" and look for other
examples in Jewish life and history. It is particularly important
to examine contemporary implications.
Acknowledgments
The activities below were adapted and extended from a monthly series
on Teaching Israel, produced and edited by Mr. Yitzhak Zucher
at the former Pedagogic Center of the Department for Torah Education
and Culture in the Diaspora.
[Next]
[Tishrei Holidays] [Top
Homepage]