blogs/masa

We've had another busy week!

On Monday and Tuesday, we celebrated Rosh Hashanah at BHA. We had 40 children, ages 1-12, participating in our children's services on the first day! Ilana offered a lovely program for children under the age of 5. Our oldest children then helped to lead a service for the younger children, followed by a birthday party for the world! Wendy, Danielle, and I then led children through activities like discussing the story of the creation of the world, learning some Hebrew, and reflecting on what we liked about last year and what we hope for the new year. Many of you also braved the rain to share Tashlich with our community down at Long Dock Park.

On Friday, the 3rd-7th grade students prepared for Yom Kippur by talking about some of the things we hope to let go of from last year, and some of the actions we hope we'll all be able to continue in the coming year. Check out the bulletin board to the right of the closets in the social hall to see some of what they wrote!

The holidays come quickly in the month of Tishrei, so all of the Masa students spent part of their learning time this week helping to paint a piano that will be near our Main Street sukkah next week! The children had a big vision, not much time, and many hands to include in painting this piano. They chose to stick with grand plans, and I trusted them to do their best. Visit the BHA Sukkah to see for yourself how well they accomplished their challenging goal! Click here for the calendar listing for all Open to the Sky events. (For those who can't tell from the pictures, they wanted to show the immense night sky, as seen through the roof of a sukkah.)

I want to give special praise to our sixth and seventh grade students, who not only came up with the vision for how we would paint the piano, but also led the younger children through the process of painting. They were patient, calm when people made mistakes, and handled creative differences with excellent communication skills! All of the teachers who were supervising our oldest children as they supervised the younger children were impressed with how they handled themselves. I am looking forward to seeing the contributions these young adults bring to our community as they move into adulthood!

This Sunday, we also had a parent meeting. To find out more, to sign up for your spot to bring snacks for Sunday Masa, and to learn about volunteer opportunities, please be in touch with Leilah Ezra!

What's coming up?

We will have services and activities for children ages 5-12 on Wednesday from 10-1 for Yom Kippur. As you might expect, the activities will be in a more quiet mood than we shared on Rosh Hashanah. Weather permitting, we will have some time outdoors, as well as time to learn and reflect indoors. A snack will be served.

On Friday and Sunday, Masa will meet at the usual time. Particularly on Sundays, please make sure that your child or children arrive on time so that they don't miss out on anything! 

Our journal topic for this week is reflecting on themes of Sukkot: If you could invite anyone in the world to a party, who would you invite? What would you do with them? What would you talk about? (The person can be living now, or in the past, or in the future. The person can be real or fictional.)

On Sunday evening, please join the rest of the BHA community for a community potluck at the Main Street sukkah as we begin Sukkot!