For the past few months, the Grade One students have been learning about community, and about the two kinds of ‘hearts’ that create community: חכם לב, the “wise or skilled heart” and נדיב לב the “generous heart.” They have been learning how we bring together our intelligence, skills and talent– our חכם לב along with a willingness to contribute and care — our נדיב לב to create a strong community. In doing so, we create, just as the ancient Israelites did, a משכן – a dwelling place for God. The ancient Israelites created a physical משכן, by offering their talents of carpentry, weaving, and jewelry. Today, the Grade One students helped create a spiritual משכן by offering their voices, our minds, and our hearts to a beautiful Kabbalat Hasiddur ceremony. Their families joined them in a community prayer, תפילה בציבור and witnessed the חוכמי לב — the skills each of our students learned to read the Hebrew prayers; families were invited to be נדבי לב – generous participants in our community prayer. Together, by creating community, we created a משכן, a dwelling place for God.
Shabbat Shalom
Moreh Greg
