Getting Ready For Yom Kippur

Hello all!  Maya here, lead teacher at Makom Community.  I’ll be popping up on the blog here from time to time.  I have so enjoyed getting to work with our students these past few weeks.  I am continually impressed by the insights they share and the work they create at our different shulchanot avodah (learning centers). 

Last week we explored teshuvah.  Teshuvah is usually translated into English as repentance.  The students, together with Beverly and I, reflected on how each of us can be the best version of our selves, and how sometimes even when we try really hard to be our best self we may miss the mark or make a mistake.  We have been defining teshuvah as the actions we take to adjust or correct when we don’t quite hit the mark. And those actions get us closer to being our best self.  Check out last week’s blog post for more on activities the children did around this theme.  One way teshuvah ties into this High Holiday season is through the ritual of tashlich where we throw pieces of bread into the river that each symbolize a time we tried but didn’t quite hit the mark.  Then we let go of those mistakes as we watch our pieces of bread float away.  Enjoy these pictures below of our students doing tashlich at the Schuylkill River this past Tuesday. 

This week, in preparation for Yom Kippur, we studied the line from the High Holiday machzor (special High Holiday prayer book)which says “Teshuvah, Tfilah (prayer), and Tzedakah (charity) are things that can help us be our best selves.”  This week we are focusing on tzedakah and tefilah.  Today we discussed all the different ways we can give tzedakah, by giving time, food, money, or other items in need. Then we thought about why giving tzedakah might help us be our best selves.  Then we began our tzedakah project: the students braided miniature loaves of challah.  Tomorrow, we will deliver that challah to the Mitzvah Food Project (at 21^st & Arch) for our neighbors who don’t have enough to eat.

It has been a great week, and I can’t wait to share more of our exciting learning adventures with you soon! Enjoy the pictures below of tashlich and tfilah with Makom Community at the Schuylkill River.