by Rabbi Alissa Forrest
from the March 2008 Ruach
In the Talmud, Berakhot 64A, Rabbi Eleazar declares, “Don’t call them your children; call them your builders.” Without vowels, the letters for the Hebrew words for children and builders are exactly the same. I don’t think it is a coincidence that children and builders are interchangeable. As Rabbi Eleazar explains, our children are the ones who lay the foundation for our future.
Take a look down the hallways of the Talmud Torah Center on a Sunday morning or weekday afternoons. Over thirty teens can be seen dedicating their free time to building the future of our Jewish community. In the classroom, these Avodah Teaching Assistants engage the students in their Judaic learning and support them as they begin their Hebrew studies. Or look in the Youth Lounge when a Simcha or Anachnu event is taking place. Our High School staff can be seen around the room hanging out with the younger youth groupers—challenging them to a game of pool or helping the participants to form bonds.
While you are there, stay for a LAFTY event. At these, you will see the seven members of the LAFTY board lead a program that they planned with the assistance of our Youth Advisor, Alli Darrow. They create the flyers, make phone calls (or text-message) to encourage participation, plan the activities, and write the havdalah services.
And just wait for the Purim Carnival this month. This too, is being planned and led by LAFTY. At “got Shabbat?” the art activities and games are led by our teens. On Wednesday nights and Sunday afternoons, you’ll see Meshorarim, our teen choir, and The Mighty Kleztones, our youth klezmer band, preparing to lead our congregation in prayer. And you definitely don’t want to miss the last two weeks of the summer, when forty teens serve as counselors and CITs at Camp Kefli. From early in the morning to late afternoon, teen counselors energize campers through singing and cheers. They comfort them when they have a tough momentum, and bond with them as they scream down the roller coasters.
At the end of this month, for the first time, you will see eighteen members of our 10th grade Confirmation class, lobbying our senators and representatives in Washington, DC, as they participate in the Religious Action Center’s L’Taken Seminar. All these leadership roles and opportunities are in addition to Wednesday nights, when over a hundred of our 8-10th graders come to study (and socialize) at Teen School.
Becoming a bar or bat mitzvah is just the beginning of teenagers experiences at Temple Isaiah. Through these unique opportunities, teens not only build positive Jewish experiences for our children, but also they learn skills to become future leaders of our community.
Let us not call them our children, for they are truly our builders!
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