PARSHAT ACHREI-MOT KEDOSHIM 2

AHAVA SCULPTURE

It has been a long time since my last Parsha Projects post. But, lately, I have given some thought to turning the blog into a book. But, I have not felt very motivated to take the necessary steps forward. I realized this morning that besides the usual reasons for lack of motivation and procrastination, I was having trouble getting started because I was not actively engaged in actually doing parsha projects anymore. I realized that I would probably never be inspired to collate the projects that I have already done, if I was not simultaneously working on new ideas and keeping it fresh. I had basically given up on continuing parsha projects at home since adding two little boys and losing the "quiet days" just the two girls in the house. But, now that the baby is five months old, we are entering into a somewhat calmer period and I feel like I can try again. So, here goes. This week's parsha, Achrei Mot-Kedoshim is chock-full of mitzvot, the most famous of which is probably "LOVE your neighbor as yourself." In Hebrew, "veahavta leraech kamocha." This famous adage has a myriad of interpretations. But, I just wanted to focus on the concept of LOVE or AHAVA in Hebrew. I immediately thought of Robert Indiana's famous AHAVA sculpture at the Israel museum in Jerusalem.



This sculpture was originally produced in English and the LOVE design has been reproduced in a variety of formats. It has been recreated in multiple versions, languages and colors, around the world.



I found the image to be very inspiring for a kids' project. Big block letters, bold colors. It seemed especially perfect for my 5 year old daughter Avital since we are currently working with her on learning both her English and Hebrew letters.

Now, I just had to figure out exactly what medium to use. I liked the idea of doing an actual sculpture but that would entail working with styrafoam, wood, or clay - not something I could pull off at the last minute. It would have to be something I could prepare in an hour, with materials I had at home, and with baby in tow.

I looked around for some inspiration...







When the girls came home from school, they were thrilled to hear that we were going to do a parsha project again...finally. I told them that this week's parsha contained the famous pasuk "veahavta lereacha kamocha." We talked a little bit about what that could mean. For Avital it basically boiled down to "Do you like to be pinched? No. So don't pinch others. Do you like to get gifts? Yes. So give gifts to others." The conversation with Maya was a bit more sophisticated. We also spent time on the computer looking at images of the original sculptures. They identified the letters and we talked about how the sculpture was a large square divided into four smalled squares, each filled by one letter. In the end, our project was very simple. They were content to color or paint multiple versions of the words and now we have an outside gallery of LOVE...




SHABBAT SHALOM!

ACHREI MOT-KEDOSHIM

MITZVAH JAR



I knew that we would focus this week on Parshat Kedoshim (lots of nice sweet mitzvot) and not Achrei Mot (the Azazel-goat). First I selected a handful of the most accessible mitzvot in the parsha - respecting elders, respecting parents, not speaking lashon hara, loving your neighbor, etc. (cleverly omitting the prohibitions again incest and child slaughter) - to review and discuss. Originally, I thought that we would make a "mitzvah tree" so that we could keep track of when we fulfilled any one of these. I nixed that because they (and every other Jewish preschool) have a mitzvah tree at school and I generally try to avoid having the walls of my home look too much like a preschool bulletin board. So, my revised idea was to create a "mitzvah jar." If you google "mitzvah jar" (which I did), you will find many ideas for Bar Mitzvah favors - jars filled with jelly beans customized with slogans like "I partied at Justin's bar mitzvah" - this is not what I was looking for.

There was only one that was relevant to my project - a facebook group - this is the description of the group:
“Mitzvah” means good deed, in Hebrew. When my children were very young, one and three years old, we began using what we called a “Mitzvah Jar” to encourage good behavior. When a good deed was done, we’d write it down on a piece of paper, fold it up, and put it in the Mitzvah Jar. Every so often, we’d take all the pieces of paper out and read them, to remind us of all the good they’d done. Reading all the good deeds was inspirational, no matter how simple the nice gesture was (one of my favorites…“Zachary helped Joshua open the refrigerator”), and motivated the whole family to be kind and helpful to others. Let’s take helping others to a new level! Share your acts of kindness and let’s inspire each other to make a difference! Do it in groups, do it alone, something big, something small. If you have an idea but need more manpower, post it! Who knows? Maybe through this group you'll connect with people in your area that would like to be a part of your project! Let's inspire and be inspired!

I don't know who Sue Naiditch Mirman is but this is just what I had in mind so a "mitzvah jar" it was. No shopping required. In my endless and futile attempts to have my home look like the Container Store, I have plenty of extra storage jars for dried goods.

First, I found lots of fun "google images" to represent the mitzvot we were discussing like:







Then, we got to work coloring, cutting, and pasting.



Avital decided to cut something other than paper - her hair!!!! - when I wasn't looking... but that is for another blog...



Our finished project is not gorgeous but it sits next to our shabbat candles and will hopefully gradually fill up with "mitzvah notes." On Friday, we put in the following notes:

"Maya helped her teacher do the dishes"
"Avital listened to her imma and left her bag in the car"
"Imma helped a friend cook Shabbat dinner"



While I like this project, I am somewhat wary of becoming the overly enthusiastic mother who is constantly saying in a sing-song voice things like "Who wants to be a mitzvah girl?" and "Someone did a mitzvah!". You can take the girl out of yeshiva, but...