Yom Hazikaron

• Paper with large letters on them (spelling large word)

Goal:  The purpose of the peulah is to make chanichim sensitive to and aware of the messages of Yom HaZikaron.  While Yom HaZikaron is a very emotional day, this peulah has been kept relatively light because it is designed for snif.

Peulah:  Take pieces of paper and draw one large letter on each piece.  The letters should spell a bunch of different long words or phrases (things like “super-califrajilistic-expealidocious” or  “The cat in the hat” and the like - BE CREATIVE!!).  Have everybody sit down.  Show them the letters one at a time in random order.  When you are done ask them what the 10th letter was.  They probably will not know.

Then show them the letters in the right order - the order that spells out the word.  Tell them that this time there is a special order.  Hopefully some of them will realize you are spelling out the word.  Again ask them what the 10th letter is.  THis time they shpuld get it.

You can make this into a game with several rounds.  Go through the letters a few times, perhaps spelling different things and sometimes no things at all.  Each time you finish going through the letters you want to show, ask what the N’th letter was, and whoever gets it wins the round.

Sicha:  Show the kids that they did better when the letters spelled something than they did when the letters were random.  Ask them - why do they think this happened?

Sometimes, to remember one letter, you have to remember all the letters.  When you see the whole thing, you remember and appreciate all the little parts.

The same is true of Yom HaZikaron.  It is just one day in the whole year.  But is it the only day we think about people who gave their lives for Israel?  If we think about Israel all the time and what it means to us, then we will appreciate all that people sacrificed to make it possible.  If Israel is on our mind every day, then we will be better able to remember it and those who sacrificed for it on Yom HaZikaron.

In Israel on Yom HaZikaron there is one moment when everybody in the whole country stops what they are doing and stand still to think about fallen Israeli soldiers.  A siren sounds across the whole country and everybody comes to a stand still - people on side walks stop walking, cars on the road pull off to the side, people at work stop what they are doing.  For one minute, everybody everywhere is silent.

Taking one minute to remember does mean that that is the only minute people take to remember.  Because the sacrifices they have made are always a part of their lives and so close to their heart all the time, they can understand the feelings and emotion of that one moment that is set aside for silent remembrance on Yom HaZikaron