Tekiyaaaa! That’s the sound of a shofar, a special horn that we blow in the weeks leading up to and during the High Holidays. Like the Shema, a shofar asks us to wake up and pay attention.
We started off snacktime learning each day this week by blowing the shofar. Then we unpacked what the shofar is asking us to pay attention to:
- Everything
- Reading the torah
- The rabbi
What about ourselves is the shofar asking us to notice/pay attention to?:
- My body
- What’s happening around me
- My heartbeat – to know if there is something wrong or right
- Water
- Marshmallow fluff
- What we are eating
- Time
- Friends – when they are trying to tell you something
We connected the conversation back to the Shema and how our practices around saying it help us pay attention. Your kiddos noticed that when we say Shema we are quiet, we cover our einayim, our eyes, and at Makom Community we put a single finger across our einayim. But why? How does covering our eyes help us say Shema?
- We cover our eyes so we can’t see
- We put one finger over our eyes to think about the “one God” part of Shema
- So we don’t see anything, so we don’t get distracted
- It gives you good luck
- It helps us listen because sometimes people need to just close their eyes and listen
- Because you’re meditating and you have to relax
- You gotta close your eyes and concentrate on what you’re doing
Tune in next week when we dig into Yom Kippur, apologizing, and what’s next in the Shema text!
