Elisabeth
Resource
Type:
Peula
in:
English
Age:
10-14
Group Size:
10-55
Estimated Time:
45
minutes
Topic:
In
this peulah we start with the most basic of topics-friendship and how we relate
to others. Though it is the most basic, however, this topic is still among the
most important in the lives of Jews of all ages. As Rabbi Akiva said, “V’Ahavta
L’Reiacha Kamocha-Hu Klal Gadol BaTorah”. By instilling the value of proper
friendship and mitzvot bein adam l’chaveiro in our chanichim we are giving them one of the most important gifts they
will ever receive.
Goal:
To learn what it
means to be a good friend. To present the idea of a chevrah and its importance
and to instill the value of treating every person as we would like to be
treated.
Peulah:
1st-3rd Graders
Standing in a
circle, everyone should receive a cup with one candy in it. Fill one cup up
with candies, (or use half a box of candies or chips or pretzels). At the end
of each round everyone has to eat a certain number of candies to have enough
energy to get to the next round.
Since each
chanich has one candy they will all get through the first round which requires
only one candy-Now is when it starts getting interesting…
Give one chanich
the half-box of candies and have them pass it around. Each chanich should take
as many candies as they think they will need to get through the entire game.
What they don’t know, however, is how many rounds there will be or how many
candies they will need for each round.
In between each
round the madrich should transfer candies among the kids e.g. have the one who
has the most give all of his candies-except one-to the one who has the
least…after a
couple of rounds let the chanichim start trading amongst themselves.
Hopefully, they
will understand the value of sharing and will make sure that everyone gets
enough to get through all the rounds. However, it is more likely that they just
won’t get it and a number of kids will end up not having enough candy to get
through the whole game. Once a bunch of kids have gotten “out” or once all the
candies have been eaten , bring all the survivors into the middle to play a
game of freeze tag. All those who did not survive are “it” and must touch the
survivors (same sex only). When touched a survivor must freeze until another
survivor touches him.
Having played
until the kids are too tired to run (or more likely until you run out o ftime
in Snif) sit everyone down and make a very simple point: The more people that
they shared their candies with during the game the more people who were around
to unfreeze them during the game of tag. The more people who they didn’t share
with, the more “its” there were out to get them.
The point of
this game is very simple, but may be a bit subtle, and should be strongly
emphasized. Not helping your friends is simply not an option!!
4th-6th graders
The game for 1-3
graders can be used for this group in a shortened version in addition to the
following peulah:
Make up name
tags before shabbat. On the name tag
write one of a variety of personalities that you would find in a classroom-e.g.
smarty pants, teachers pet, trouble maker, too cool, bully…
Give one nametag
to each of the chanichim in your group and tell them to form two groups of
friends based on the personality types they think their assigned personality
would like (ie Smarty Pants might be friends with Too Cool…).
Once they have
formed the groups ask them how they would relate to people from the other
group.
Would they: Invite them over to their house
Talk to them in school ,
Say Hi to them on the bus…
Now change the
situation, a nuclear war has broken out and they are all trying to get into the
school’s small bomb shelter.
Who would they
help in first?
Would they help
in people who they aren’t friends with? Would they risk their lives for them?
What if only
half of them could fit, who should survive?
Important points to bring out in the
discussion are:
· The
mitzva of V’ahavta l’reicha kamocha (LOVING everyone!!)
· We
may not be best friends with everyone but we have to treat them all nicely-as
we ourselves would want to be treated.
· How
“good” people isn’t defined by who we are friends with-those who aren’t our
friends deserve to make it into the shelter just as much as those who are.
· There
is an Issur D’oraita of “Al ta’amod al dam reiacha”-we cannot stand idly by
while a fellow Jew is in trouble. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to
gie up our own lives but we do have to try and help!!
7TH-8TH Graders
This peulah will
focus on one of the most relevant issues for this age group:
Peer Pressure.
Instead of a
game, the trigger for this sicha will be a story taken from the “Twilight
Zone”. (For this, as for all stories it works better if you learn the basic
plot and tell it with your own improvisation, if you just read it kids will not
pay attention.)
Here we go:
It’s late at
night when Jon gets home. He has just
spent a long and hard day at the office and all he wants to do is have dinner
and go to sleep. As he walks in the door he notices a smell describable only as
“Uchh!!”. Realizing that it is his burnt dinner that he is smelling, he
immediately begins to yell at his wife, “Laura!! How many times have I told you
that I need to have a good dinner ready for me when I get home!! Can’t you do
anything right? I slave all day trying to make some money so we can make it out
of this dump and you can’t even cook dinner properly!!” An argument ensues with
Laura replying that she too has had a hard day, she is 8 months pregnant and it
is hard to do all the chores and get the meals cooked perfectly.
After a long
argument both Laura and Jon sit down on the couch exhausted. They both realize
that if only they had a bit more money their lives would be so much easier…they
start dreaming of the day when they will have enough money to have a nice house and a backyard etc. Suddenly the
door swings open and a man in a black trench-coat walks in and puts a small
black box on the table. Flipping open the cover, he reveals a small red button.
Next to the box he places a briefcase containing 5 million dollars. “Just touch
that red button”, he says, “and all that money is yours.” Jon reaches out to
touch the button but he man grabs his hand. “Before you touch it you need to
know that when you touch that button someone somewhere will die. But I can tell
you that you do not know him nor do you
have any idea who he is.” Still, Jon was ready to push the button but his
wife made him stop. “You have till
The whole next
day the couple sat debating. Jon used various arguments: He has to die sometime
and we don’t even know him, people die everyday what difference does one more
make…this money will solve all our problems!! Laura didn’t agree with any of
the arguments and they fought back and forth and back and forth…by
Suddenly, the
man burst into the room smiling. He picked up the box with the red button and
turned to leave. Realizing what he was doing, Jon called after him, “Wait,
where are you going with that?” “To someone else,” replied the man, “but I can
promise you that he doesn’t know you nor
does he have any idea who you are!!”
Follow-up questions:
· What
did you think of the story?
· What
would you do in Laura’s situation?
· Who
was more to blame, Jon or Laura?
· Have
you ever been in a situation where someone tried to convince you to do
something you knew was wrong?
· What
did/should you do?
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