A Light To The Nations

Grades 1-3

Goal:       1. to begin to teach the meaning of the term Or Lagoyim= the Jewish people as a nation have an obligation to act together in a way that presents the positive lessons of Judaism such as compassion, justice and charity to people who are not Jewish so the world as a whole can become a better place.

2. to teach the chaninchim/ot that by working together as a group (as a nation) one can have greater influence and impact than by acting alone

Grades 4-8

Goal:  to begin to teach the meaning of the term Or Lagoyim= the Jewish people have an obligation to create a society that reflects the high moral standards of truth, honesty, compassion and justice that Judaism teaches, and this society should be a model for and influence all the nations of the world.

Week # 4: Or Lagoyim – “A Light to the Nations”

Grades 1-3

Goal:       1. to begin to teach the meaning of the term Or Lagoyim= the Jewish people as a nation have an obligation to act together in a way that presents the positive lessons of Judaism such as compassion, justice and charity to people who are not Jewish so the world as a whole can become a better place.

2. to teach the chaninchim/ot that by working together as a group (as a nation) one can have greater influence and impact than by acting alone

Peula:

A. Have the kids sit in a circle, ask if anyone in the group knows what  Or Lagoyim means and get various suggestions.  Make sure the kids know what the individual words Or (light) and Goyim (nations) mean but do not necessarily tell the what the concept is.  Tell the kids they are now going to play a game that illustrates the idea of Or Lagoyim.

       B. Games

         Game One: Tug of War.  First, play tug of war with only two kids on each side.  Gradually add kids to each side.  At the end of the game, ask the kids when they were the strongest (when there were more people)  Explain that when more people work together

         Game Two: first divide the kids into two groups 1. “the performers”

2. “the audience”

tell the performers that their job is to convince the audience to join them on stage doing whatever they are doing.  Give the performers something to do – eg, jumping jacks, spinning around (think of some funny things – sorry Im not being helpful)

The madrich should send one performer up to do whatever the assigned task is and let him/her do it for 1-2 minutes.  Then the madrich should ask the auidence if anyone wants to join the performer (hopefully everyone will say no)  Then the madrich should send another performer to join, and let the two of them perform for another 1 minute and again ask the auidence if anyone wants to join the performer (hopefully again everyone will say no).   By the time there are about 5 kids up there all the audience should want to join and will get up there and everyone will be doing jumping jacks.  The madrich should also get the performers to keep trying to convince the audince to join them.

       C. Discussion: Ask the kids in the audience when they were more inclined to join the game – when lots of people were playing or when one person was up there. (hopefully they will say when many people were up there – but remember all answers can and SHOULD be worked into the discussion)  Ultimatley, the point that you are presenting is that Or Lagoyim means not only doing good deeds and being a good example by ones self (which is clearly important and should be done) but that we are also obligated as a nation because as a group together

1.    we have a greater impact

2.    we help improve ourselves as well as sending a message to other people (b/c it is much more difficult to work with other people than alone so we learn that lesson as well)

Grades 4-8

Goal:  to begin to teach the meaning of the term Or Lagoyim= the Jewish people have an obligation to create a society that reflects the high moral standards of truth, honesty, compassion and justice that Judaism teaches, and this society should be a model for and influence all the nations of the world.

       Peula: Tell the whole group that they have been given a mission.  They are responsible for creating a perfect society.  Divide the kids into groups of four.  Tell each group that they must come up with two rules and ways to enforce them.  Each rule must reflect some value that is important to the society, and the punishment for breaking the rule must also be ethical.  Tell the kids they have 15 minutes to do this.  After 15 minutes, all the groups will one by one present their rules.  After they do this the madrichim should get up and act out a violation of the rule and the kids should try to stop them by using the punishment they thought of.

Discussion:  This should be quick as everyone just presented. Ask the kids why they made up each rule.  Have the kids discuss the difficulty of enforcing the rules and creating this model society and then talk to them about even with these difficulties why it is important for  Jewish people to create a society that reflects the high moral standards of truth, honesty, compassion and justice that Judaism teaches that is a model for and influence all the nations of the world.