As we come to end of the first term, it is beshert that we also read the final parshah of Sefer Bereishit (Genesis).\u00a0Much of the Parshat Vayechi is comprised of blessings that Ya’akov offers to each of his children prior to his death.\u00a0The blessings take place in Egypt, where the family now resides, and where Yosef has become a great leader.\u00a0After Ya’akov passes away, the rest of the brothers approach Yosef with trepidation. With their father gone, they fear that he will punish them out of revenge for the way they treated him in the past.\u00a0They approach Yosef and ask for forgiveness.\u00a0Yosef weeps at their request. Then he comforts them.\u00a0The Torah says that he “spoke to their heart” and assured them that he would protect them.\u00a0Yosef allowed himself to be emotional, and this helped him respond to the emotions of his brothers.<\/p>\n
At Heschel, our staff focus a lot of their professional development on the topic of Self-Regulation.\u00a0We have learned that one of the key features of self-regulation is the ability to be aware of our own emotional states as a pre-requisite to being aware of the emotional states of our students.\u00a0If a student does something that makes me frustrated or upset, I cannot really respond well to that student unless I am aware of my own feelings and can regulate them. Only then can I consider if the way the student was feeling might have led to his or her action in the first place. Understanding our students’ emotional states can go a long way in understanding them as learners: what excites them, and what blocks them from learning.\u00a0Yosef provides a great model of emotional intelligence for parents and teachers. Step one – acknowledge your own feelings; step two – try to understand the emotional state of the person with whom you are interacting.<\/p>\n
This Shabbat may we all have an opportunity to practice “speaking to the heart,”\u00a0to\u00a0our own hearts, and to the hearts of others.<\/p>\n
Shabbat Shalom,<\/p>\n
Moreh Greg<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we come to end of the first term, it is beshert that we also read the final parshah of Sefer Bereishit (Genesis).\u00a0Much of the Parshat Vayechi is comprised of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n