Community Helpers Theme: All About Rabbis

A rabbi must certainly know his alephbet and be able to read and write in order to continue studying Jewish texts and law!

A rabbi is certainly someone we see in our synagogues and day schools. We see them reading from the Torah and leading prayers. We see them teaching students of all ages. But what else do rabbis do? What must someone learn and be able to do in order to become a rabbi? Do all rabbis do the same things or do some have different jobs? From a very young age, Jewish children learn to treat rabbis with reverence and respect. As they get older, they will learn and see how many different roles rabbis can play in their occupations. Some do work in synagogues and lead services. Some are chazzanim and lead prayers in synagogue services. Some work as a mashgiach in restaurants and food factories to oversee kashrus (to ensure that foods, ingredients and cooking practices are all carried out to the standards of keeping kosher). Some are counselors, some are authors, some are teachers and all are students. Some study specific areas of Jewish law and help Jewish people answer questions and solve problems. Some rabbis might be a sofer or scribe, and perform the tedious and important job of writing Torah scrolls, mezuzahs, and other important Jewish documents.

One thing is true for certain--and that is that a rabbi must do a lot of learning! One of the first things a young Jewish child will learn is his alephbet, his Hebrew alphabet. That will lead to being able to read and write and from there, the possibilities are endless! For the purpose of learning about rabbis as community helpers, I set up a variety of alephbet activities for my son to work with. He announced at the end that he now wants to be a rabbi when he grows up; I'm not entirely sure, however, that he is not currently convinced a rabbi paints, makes collages and uses rubber stamps all day long!

This puzzle is still a bit challenging for my toddler, but the more he manipulates and handles each of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, the more he will become familiar with each of them and eventually with reading and writing them. He already is able to identify each of the letters inside this book--something his own mother could not do until her mid-twenties!

I set out a large sheet of easel paper for working with. We began with some alephbet rubber stamps and washable ink...

Next we tried our hands at using a "quill" (craft feather) and "ink" (washable paint) to "write letters" just like a sofer who must write each letter of the Torah without any mistakes at all! That surely must take a lot of practice....

He especially enjoyed using paint and these alephbet cookie cutters to make prints!

We've been continuing work in our Twelve Pesukim book project. He loves reciting each of these Torah passages as much as he loves making collages on each page as we learn them together.

Adding the next letter to our Aleph Beis Train project (pictured at the top) seemed like a perfect way to wrap up our activities. We started this when he was just a little baby--and I did all the handiwork. Now he does the gluing all by himself! We even found a great video online that shows the writing of a Torah scroll. Although the video is meant for children, we found it a bit lengthy for my young toddler and parts were a bit above his level. I chose a few select portions to show him and he was so impressed with seeing a real scribe hard at work making each and every letter inside the Torah. While a sofer must work tediously to make sure that no mistakes are made as he writes, the most important work of a child is play. We do not focus on perfection but rather on opportunities to try through hands-on exploration and play. In that merit, I wish you all happy playing!