igniting your shabbat services

Bamidbar

Bamidbar

Hello and welcome to Spark!

Spark is a new idea from Tribe, aimed at facilitating the smooth running of Toddlers’ Services, Children’s Services and Youth Services across United Synagogue communities.

Firstly, thank you for offering to run a Children’s Service in your local shul. The US is very proud of the numerous Children’s services that are run every week across the UK, and we would not be able to do this without you!

Spark has been designed in order to help you run your Children’s Services. Obviously, every Children’s Service is different, in terms of how many children there are; what their age range is; how long it is for; and how knowledgeable the children are likely to be of this week’s parasha.

Ideally, where possible, a Children’s Service should consist of some time used to discuss the weekly parasha, and some time devoted to davening. Spark is aimed at the parasha part of the service. It gives you an overview of what happens in the weekly parasha, and then a song, activity, discussion or Dvar Torah to run with the children – depending on their ages.

After the parasha summary on the next page, Spark has been split into 5 sections. Larger communities may have 5 different Children’s / Youth Services running concurrently. Each of these will be able to use one section for their relevant age group. If your shul does not have as many groups, then you should use the section that best suits the age range of your participants.

It has been created in a way to be flexible, so that it can be run in 10 minutes, if you have a short service, or longer if you have the time. If you also look at sections for other age groups, you may even find that you would like to use the ideas and information from more than one of the sections.

It is important to note that Spark should help you to run Children’s Services, but it does not completely run it for you. It is not designed to give to one of the children to read out to the group for them to run themselves. You are running the Children’s Service, and Spark is here to help you do it.

Largely, no props will be needed, but ideally you should read Spark before you start the Children’s Service, so that you can think of further ideas to complement it.

We hope that you and the children in the Children’s Service will benefit from Spark, we thank and congratulate you for doing it; and as always we welcome your feedback.

Shabbat shalom,

The Tribe Education Team

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

Bamidbar

n In the First Parasha of Bamidbar, the fourth book of the Torah, Moshe is commanded to take a census of the Children of Israel.

n We then see the naming of the 12 Tribes of Israel; Reuben, Simeon, Gad, Judah, Isaachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, Menasseh, Benjamin, Dan, Asher and Naphtali, and their banners which they used to identify themselves.

n The Leviim were not counted when everyone else was, they were counted separately. They were given the special task of building and dismantling the Mishkan, every time the Children of Israel moved camps.

n The Torah then goes on to talk about where the different tribes will be positioned when encamped. For example Reuben will be encamped in the south, near to the Tribe of Simeon.

PARASHA SUMMARY

BamidbarPRE-NURSERY TO RECEPTIONTots

Parasha SongIn this week’s Parasha we read about the 12 Tribes and their flags, which were used to identify them. This Parasha highlights the importance of names, and individual identity, but also the identity of Israel, as a single, united nation.

Sing the following song to the tune of dusty bluebells

Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Yehudah,

Yissachar, Zevulun, Dan, Naftali,

Gad, Asher, Yosef and Binyamin,

These are the twelve shevatim! (tribes)

BamidbarYEAR 1 & 2Ages 5-7

In this week’s parasha, we read about the precise details of the positions that each Tribe should encamp at. They were given very specific instructions about where they should be, and where this was in relation to the other tribes’ camps. This highlights the importance of listening to instructions.

Activity:

Ask the children to do the following, (for an added challenge, say they cannot

speak either!);

n Line up in height order

n Line up in alphabetical name order - first names

n Line up in alphabetical name order - surnames

n Line up in birthday order January to December.

They will only know what to do if they listen to exactly the right instruction

from you.

Activity;

Ask all the children to tell the group in turn something about their name; E.g.

Is it a Hebrew name or otherwise? Does it have a literal translation? Were they

named after somebody? What about their surname?

BamidbarYEAR 3 & 4Ages 7-9

In this week’s parasha we read about the names of the 12 Tribes, and their flags which were used to identify them. Each tribe was given a name that wsa suitable to them, it was not a random choice. This parasha highlights the importance of names, and individual identity, but also the identity of Israel, as a single, united nation.

Activity;

n Ask all the children to in turn tell the group something about their name; E.g. Is it

a Hebrew name or otherwise? Does it have a literal translation? Were they named

after somebody? What about their surname?

Discussion Points;

n What do the children know about their ancestors E.g. Where did they come from?

What jobs did they have?

n What more would they like to know?

n If they were named after someone, what do they know about this person?

n Is there anyone from the past in their family that they would have liked to interview

and what would they have asked them?

BamidbarYEAR 5 & 6Ages 9-11

In this week’s parasha we read about the names of the 12 Tribes, and their flags which were used to identify them. Each tribe was given a name that was suitable to them; it was not a random choice.

Discussion Points;

Ask all the children to in turn tell the group something about their name; e.g. is it a Hebrew name or otherwise? Does it have a literal translation? Were they named after somebody? What about their surname?

Activity;

The twelve tribes of Israel all have a symbol - describe the symbol, and see if the children can guess which tribe it belongs to and why?

REUVEN - The mandrakes (plants) in Reuven's coat-of-arms are based on the episode in Bereishit where Reuben brought his mother Leah mandrakes from the field.

SHIMON - Shimon was once one of the strongest tribes. The city of Shechem was once within the boundaries of Simon and so the gate of the city appears here.

LEVI - The Levites ‘kept charge of the tabernacles.’ Their emblem was the ephod (elaborate garment) of the High Priest on which were engraved the names of all tribes.

YEHUDAH - The most famous symbol belongs to the tribe of Judah. This tribe became the most powerful and their symbol is the lion - the symbol of strength.

DAN - In Jacob's Blessing Dan was promised that he ‘shall judge his people;’ a reference symbolized by the scales of justice on the stamp.

NAFTALI - After the conquest of the country, the tribe of Naftali settled in the north. Naftali is represented by a gazelle or running stag, found on the foothills of the Galilee.

GAD - The tribe of Gad settled in the land of Gilead. The emblem resembles a camp in reminiscence of the biblical phrase ‘Gad, a troop shall overcome him.’

ASHER - The coastal strip from the foot of Mount Carmel up to Sidon was inhabited by Asher, the fertility of whose land was indicated by an olive tree.

ISSACHAR - Their emblem of sun and stars is derived from the biblical phrase, ‘The children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times’

ZEVULUN - Zevulun settled on the country's seaboard and as symbolized by its emblem was engaged in navigation.

YOSEF - Joseph was the principal tribe in Eretz Israel, split into Manasseh and Ephraim. This fertility is symbolized by the sheaf on their stamp.

BINYAMIN - Benjamin was Jacob’s youngest child. The tribe of Benjamin however, was warlike and courageous; and produced Saul, the first king of Israel. The symbol of the tribe was the wolf, a predatory animal.

Bamidbar

Dvar TorahRead the following story with the youth:Why did Hashem instruct Moshe to take a census of the Jewish people?

Rashi says ‘Because they are precious to Him, He counts them all the time’When they left Egypt, He counted them; When they sinned with the Calf, He counted them to know the number of the survivors; When He rested His Presence among them, He counted them—on the first of Nisan the Tabernacle was erected, and on the first of Iyar (when this verse was said), He counted them.

However, the Midrash says that the Jewish people were counted on ten occasions; n Once when they went down to Egypt n Once when they departed from Egypt n Once in the (beginning of the) Book of Numbers n Once in connection with the Spies n Once in the days of Yehoshua, when the Land was divided n Twice in the days of King Saul n Once in the days of King David n Once in the days of the prophet Ezra n Once in the future to come

Rashi's comments appear to be self-contradictory. First he writes that since the Jewish people are precious to Hashem, ‘He counts them all the time.’ But then Rashi continues that Hashem only counted the Jewish people on special occasions, (which is not all the time!). Furthermore, Rashi was surely familiar with the Midrash which says that the Jewish people will only be counted ten times throughout history. So how could Rashi state that Hashem ‘counts them all the time’?

Hashem’s affection is extended towards the Jewish people at all times. As counting is a direct result of this affection, Rashi writes, ‘Because they are precious to Him (which is all the time), He counts them all the time.’ In order to prove this point, Rashi continues, ‘When they left Egypt, He counted them’ (in Parashat Bo). Since the Torah does not mention that any census took place at this time, we can only assume that this number was counted by Hashem Himself. This supports Rashi's assertion that ‘He counts them all the time,’ i.e. even when no actual census is taking place, Hashem Himself counts the Jewish people. In addition, when there is a special occasion, the Jewish people are officially counted through a census.

YOUTH SERVICEAges 12-18

igniting your shabbat services

We hope you find our guide to this week’s Parsha useful.

Be sure to look out for exciting Tribe programmes in your shul.

Shabbat Shalom!

The Tribe Education Team

t: 020 8343 5656 e: info@tribeuk.com www.tribeuk.com