We had a wonderful time gathering for Shabbat dinner last week! Thank you all for everything you brought and did to make that happen.
Between dinner and dessert, we had a few minutes for parents to learn and talk with each other. Our learning focused on Birkat Yeladim—the traditional Friday night ritual for blessing our children, where we bless our children to be like biblical archetypes. We also read a powerful essay written by Rabbi Marcia Falk raising the tension between blessing our children to be like archetypes from Jewish tradition and blessing our children to be successful as themselves and in all that they do. If you’d like to see that essay and the resources for bringing that ritual home, please click here for the PDF.
Also, we hear from many of you that your children are singing the tefilot (prayers) they are learning here at bedtime, in the bath tub, and walking down the street. A few of you have asked that we record the melodies we use so you can sing along, too. Many thanks to Gaby Marantz, our afterschool coordinator for recording these while I was getting over a cold and didn’t have much of a voice. To listen to or download these melodies, click here.