Opening Activity For Jerusalem Day - פעולת פתיחה ליום ירושלים

1. The Chanichim will get more knowledge about Jerusalem.

2. The Chanichim will understand the importance of the KOTEL as a holly place for the Jews.

3.  The Chanichim will understand the importance of  Jerusalem and it  spiritual specialty.

4.  The Chanichim will understand what the special day for Jerusalem mean.

·        Crown for each kid shaped like the kotel (wall)

·        Notes with definitions to put on the crown.

·        Paper clips (in order to attach the note to the crown)

·        Colorful Pictures of places in Jerusalem

·        Empty Notes (one for each kid)

·        The history of Yerushalaim – slideshow

·        Pictures of Yerushalaim - slideshow

Programme

The Activity steps

Part 1 – brain storm                 

Ask the chanichim what they know about Jerusalem (best to write their answers on a board / paper block).

You can do the same in a different way – show the chanichim different pictures of places in Yerushalaim/ ask them to pick one that represent the meaning of Yerushalaim for them.

Add-

Jerusalem is a very old city. In 1996 we celebrated Jerusalem 3000, the 3000^th anniversary of its founding.

Part 2 – The history of Yerushalaim                     

What do we really know about Yerushalaim?

Show the chanichim the attachment slideshow.

Part 3 – The significance of Yerushalaim

A game - 

Everyone sits in a circle. In the middle of the circle someone sits on a chair with his eyes closed. Next to him is a box full of tickets. All the kids have to try and sneak up and take a ticket from the box. (They can only take one ticket per trip). If the guy in the middle hears noise, he yells “freeze” and points to where he thinks the person is. Everyone freezes and anyone in his line of pointing is caught and now they are in the middle. The point is to get to the center as many times as you can and collect as many tickets as you can without getting caught. The person who does is the winner.

-         In the game, the center represents Yerushalayim and how everyone is trying to get there. But why do we want to go?

Add-

Chazal (the Sages) teach us that Yerusalaim has a history going back to the ‘Akeidah’( Binding of ystzchak), which happened on what will be ‘Har Habait’-Temple Mt.  (On Mount Moria), and even back to the creation of the world ( the ‘G’mara’ quotes an opinion that when the world was created it “grew” out of Yerushalaim). In the time of the ‘Mikdash’, Yerushalaim housed the ‘Beit Hamikdash’, the center of the Jewish people’s religious & national life. The ‘Beit Hamikdash’ was the holiest place in the world, and therefore Yerushalaim was the holiest city in the world. But the ‘Beit Hamikdash’ was destroyed 2000 years ago…

Discussion

-         Why is Yerushalaim still, as it has always, the most important city for the Jews?

-          What the meaning of Yerushalaim to the Jewish nation

-         What made Yerushalaim so special in the first place?

Part 3 The Kotel Crowns          

You have to give Crown for each kid, shaped like the kotel (wall).you will put a note on the crown for each kid in his turn. On the note you will write name of places …..as: Metzudat David, The City of David, Machne Yehuda (the ‘shuk’), Yad Vashem, The Knesset, The Kotel, The Temple, King Solomon, King david, and Jerusalem of gold…

The kid that has the note on his head doesn’t know what he has on his head, but all the kids around know. The kid that have  the note on his head have to ask questions  the rest of the kids, in order to know what does he have on his head.

The answers of the kids have to be just Yes or No.

You can use the places from the slideshow attachment.

Part 4 - A note for the kotel              

Give for each kid a small note and asked them, if you were at the Kotel now, what would you ask for yourself? What kind of noted you were putting inside the holes?

Give each of them to participate; it is better to make it as a round (to make sure that everybody will participate).

Discussion

Yerushalim is called “the Eye of the Universe”-

-         What do you think this mean?

-         What did the “Beit Hamikdash” symbolize? (our connection to Hashem, davening, achdut-united, holiness)

A game

The game plays kind of like laser tag. Two kids are “it” and have to tag the other kids. Each kid however has a ticket. Once he is tagged, he has to give in his ticket to the person who’s “it”. Then, he must return to the “base” and get another ticket from the Madrich so that he can continue to play. The chanichim have up until three chances to stay in the game. The kid left over at the end wins. 

Explain to the chanichim that the “home base” is the Beit Hamikdash and throughout the year we return to the Beit Hamikdash to get replenished spiritually, to ‘recharge our batteries’. This is seen specifically through Aliyah l’regel which we do three times a year, on Pesach, Shavuot and Sukkot. But hey- there’s no aliyah la’regel now.

-         So what do we do to keep Yerushalayim on our minds?

Add-

Yerushalaim and the Beit Hamikdash are significant both on the religious and national aspect:

 Three time a year, we celebrate the ‘shalosh Regalim”. Since we have no ‘Beit Mikdash’, all we see are the religious aspects of the holidays- on Passover we eat Matzot, on Shavuot we celebrate the gift of the Tora and, on Succot we bring the 4 spices. However, during the times of the “Beit Mikdash”, besides for celebrating the religious aspects, the Jews would also wll come together as a nation. Imagine if all the Jews in the world nowadays will gudering together at the same time, at the same place for a few days…

Part 5 – sum up a Trivia game

1.      What is the largest city in Israel (population)?

a.       Tel-aviv

b.      Yerushalaim

2.       how Many Gates are there in the old city's wall?

a.      8 but one of them is blocked.

b.      12 one for each tribe of Israel.

3.      Through which gate do we believe the Mashiach will come?

a.      The Golden gate.

b.      The Dung gate.

4.      What is the First time in the ת"נך,  that ירושלים  is mentioned?

a.      The story of עקדת יצחק (the sacrifice of Itzhak)  occurred in ירושלים (Mount Moria).

b.      When Avraham moves to Israel, He settles in ירושלים!  

5.      How many rows of Stones are there in the Kotel?

a.      45- 28 stones above the floor, 17 under ground.

b.      28- 12 from the older Period(the big rows),16 were recently added.(the smaller rows).

6.      In what war Yerusalaim liberated?

a.     1948 – the independent war

b.    1967 – the 6 days war

7.      Which Jewich king made Yerushalaim his capital city?

a.     King david

b.    King Solomon

8.      How many  time every year the Jewish people used to come to Yerushalaim and when?

a.    3 – Succot, Passover & Shavuot.

b.    5- Rosh Hashanna, Yom kipur, Succot, Passover & Shavuot.

Don’t forget to make the connection at the end:

Next week  we will have the Jerusalem day.

It is very important to make the connection, tell the Chanichim that during this week we will have Jerusalem day. The Hebrew date for it is כ"ח אייר.

Explain the kids that we did not have all Jerusalem, right after we won in the independence war on 1949, the Jordanians conquered it. It took 19 years until we succeed, during the 6 days war on 6/1967) to liberated Jerusalem back.

Tell them about the “Yerushalaim concert”, their subject and their rule in it.

Now do the “subject peula” and then start the rehearsal for the play.