Parhsat Vayechi - Friends and forgiveness

This week marked the start for the theme of "Friends" in the lower school. I spoke to the 1st thru 3rd graders at the shabbat assembly about the power of forgiving. As friends we sometimes say things or do things to one another that hurt feelings. Sometime we act to quickly without thinking.

If a person realizes and makes a real apology we should forgive and forget. I shared that Yosef and his brothers had a difficult relationship. Once Yosef saw that his brothers were sorry for how they treated him, Yosef revealed himself to them. He took care of them and saved them.

There was a story in the paper this week about a person who did somethings that was really not nice to a group of people. He was arrested for his actions. Given time to reflect he acknowledged that he had made a very poor choice. He wrote a warm and heartfelt apology letter to this group. Guess what? This group wrote a forgiveness letter to him. Even more a few days ago, this person received another letter from this group and it had a check in it. This group knew that this person was having a difficult time getting back in his feet and wanted to help a "friend".

Our situations are hopefully not as serious as this story, but look how far this group went in their forgiveness. We should learn an important lesson of friendship, and kindness from this story

(Here is the link to the story as it appeared in the NY Times this week. I changed the details in retelling it to the students but the message is the same.)

chanukah 5778 Night 1

On Chanukah we remember all of the incredible miracles that Hashem did for the Jewish people. From the victory of the war, to finding the pitcher of oil that lasted 8 nights. We also remember that the Greeks prohibited us from doing many mitzvot, including learning Torah. 

On Chanukah as we enjoy the lights and the presents we also need to celebrate the ability to learn Torah and do Mitzvot.  Each night we will share with you a short Dvar Torah. Listen to it after you light the Chanukah candles. There is a question posted at the end of each video. Click below to submit your answer or bring it into school on a piece of paper and give it to your morning teacher. We will select a raffle winner from all the correct answers each day of Chanukah.

Join with us as we light the night with Torah!!

Click here for Google Form to submit raffle answer