Rainbows, Pittsburgh and Perfect Lessons from KDS Tweens for the Month of Cheshvan
As we are now past the holidays, our students have opened up the learning of the book of Breishit and, in many of our classes, our children, with the guidance of their teachers, are leading parsha conversations.
Last Monday, I entered the 5th grade conversation about Noach and gained lenses on life and the rainbow that framed much of this past week at KDS. The leader asked, “Should the rainbow be seen as a sign of sadness or a sign of hope? After all, it reminds us of the greatest devastation brought to humanity. But is also is a reminder of the future.” 5th grade students went back and forth about the rainbow, expanding the conversation to discussing challenging places and spaces that can, at once, make them feel sad and also hopeful.
And, on Friday, as I sat with our 7th and 8th graders to reflect with them on the first Yahrzeit of the Tree of Life shooting, we discussed a similar question that the victims of the shooting are now confronting. What should be done with the space where the shooting took place? Students shared their thoughts.
Some felt the desire to see the synagogue destroyed and rebuilt so as not to elicit memories of the tragedy. Some felt that the sanctuary should remain untouched as to forever memorialize the event. And many felt that there should be a renovation of the sanctuary so congregants can create happy memories in a space that was so horrific. Students were unbelievably reflective about the power of a place and space of pain and how it can often bring us down, but can sometimes serve to uplift.
I was blown away by the thoughtfulness of our students and shared with them that these conversations are the perfect lessons as we leave the holiday season and enter into the month of Cheshvan.
Tishrei is a month where we focus on places of pain and regret. We explore the mistakes we have made. It is true that there are spaces in our lives that bring a flood of negative feelings, feelings of despair and pain. Yet, while we do not have to revisit all of them, we do need to re-engage with many of them in order to learn and grow. The chagim season tells us that we should use them for a new beginning, a new better start.
This concept is echoed by David Whyte, who writes that regret should not “overwhelm and debilitate “ but when done correctly, it is a “faculty for paying attention to the future, for sensing a new tide, where we missed a previous one....Fully experienced, regret turns our eyes, attentive and alert to a future possibly lived better than our past.”
And similarly, in his “prayer upon leaving the holidays” which I also shared last fall, the Slonomer Rebbe asks God to allow us to take the energy of the holidays and infuse them into the year.
I once again thank my students for last week’s exploration of the complexity of pain and regret as they helped to remind me that while pain can be debilitating, it, and regret could and should lead us to a “future possibility lived better than our past.”
As we are now past the holidays, our students have opened up the learning of the book of Breishit and, in many of our classes, our children, with the guidance of their teachers, are leading parsha conversations.
Last Monday, I entered the 5th grade conversation about Noach and gained lenses on life and the rainbow that framed much of this past week at KDS. The leader asked, “Should the rainbow be seen as a sign of sadness or a sign of hope? After all, it reminds us of the greatest devastation brought to humanity. But is also is a reminder of the future.” 5th grade students went back and forth about the rainbow, expanding the conversation to discussing challenging places and spaces that can, at once, make them feel sad and also hopeful.
And, on Friday, as I sat with our 7th and 8th graders to reflect with them on the first Yahrzeit of the Tree of Life shooting, we discussed a similar question that the victims of the shooting are now confronting. What should be done with the space where the shooting took place? Students shared their thoughts.
Some felt the desire to see the synagogue destroyed and rebuilt so as not to elicit memories of the tragedy. Some felt that the sanctuary should remain untouched as to forever memorialize the event. And many felt that there should be a renovation of the sanctuary so congregants can create happy memories in a space that was so horrific. Students were unbelievably reflective about the power of a place and space of pain and how it can often bring us down, but can sometimes serve to uplift.
I was blown away by the thoughtfulness of our students and shared with them that these conversations are the perfect lessons as we leave the holiday season and enter into the month of Cheshvan.
Tishrei is a month where we focus on places of pain and regret. We explore the mistakes we have made. It is true that there are spaces in our lives that bring a flood of negative feelings, feelings of despair and pain. Yet, while we do not have to revisit all of them, we do need to re-engage with many of them in order to learn and grow. The chagim season tells us that we should use them for a new beginning, a new better start.
This concept is echoed by David Whyte, who writes that regret should not “overwhelm and debilitate “ but when done correctly, it is a “faculty for paying attention to the future, for sensing a new tide, where we missed a previous one....Fully experienced, regret turns our eyes, attentive and alert to a future possibly lived better than our past.”
And similarly, in his “prayer upon leaving the holidays” which I also shared last fall, the Slonomer Rebbe asks God to allow us to take the energy of the holidays and infuse them into the year.
I once again thank my students for last week’s exploration of the complexity of pain and regret as they helped to remind me that while pain can be debilitating, it, and regret could and should lead us to a “future possibility lived better than our past.”
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