A New Chinuch Group for Parents Dear Parents, My name is Rabbi Tzvi Moshe Schultz, and I have a new chinuch project that I would like to share with you. For the past 14 years I have been running a successful email-based chaburah for mechanchim, called the Chinuch Chaburah. Boruch Hashem I have had a lot of success, and there are currently mechanchim representing over 200 different mosdos hachinuch from around the world who are participating. This year I started a new chinuch group, geared for parents. The goal of this group is to share with parents helpful chinuch insights, resources, shiurim, seforim, videos, materials, etc. In addition,the highlight of the group is the ability to ask chinuch questions from a panel of over 100 mechanchim from around the world, culled from the Chinuch Chaburah group. [See here for a list of the mechanchim: Mechanchim List] Below is a copy of a recent question and the answers that were shared. This group is very professional, and completely tznius. No names of parents are shared at all. It does not at all resemble a chat room. It is only for providing chinuch guidance to parents. I anticipate that I will charge $36 for a yearly subscription. However, I will not charge anything until after Sukkos. Therefore, you can join now for free and decide later if you wish to remain and pay. Anyone who is interested should send the message "subscribe" to parentchinuch@gmail.com. Thank you very much, Rabbi Tzvi Moshe Schultz
Shabbos Table Suggestions: Question: What are some suggestions for creating a more meaningful Shabbos table? Rabbi Ezra Ziegler Perhaps (depending on age and stage) 1- Asking them what they enjoy to eat and drink. 2- Singing songs they like. 3- Sharing Divrei Torah on their own, not necessarily what they learnt in yeshiva. Rabbi Pinchus Kohn Here is an idea regarding Parsha sheets. Rabbi Shmuel Kranz 1) Before kiddush, thank each child for their contribution or say good shabbos to each one and say how special it is that they are here. Rabbi Heshy Forster Shabbos table depends much on the age of the children and their interests. Games can be helpful but take time to prepare. I have seen games like bingo, matching memory, taboo etc. be created into parsha or general yahadus topics and played at Shabbos tables to entertain the family. Conversations should be geared to the age of the children, and if there are various ages, try to alternate. In general, it’s worth keeping the meals short and meaningful. Divrei Torah should also be geared to your audience, younger children will enjoy a story and older children may enjoy a challenging Halacha question to discuss or a real life dilemma that involves Halacha or Hashkafa. The key is to know your audience. If your family is musical you can try playing around with the Zemiros and putting different tunes to the standard Zemiros or some other singing idea to keep the interest and excitement. Variety is the spice of life. Change things up every so often and bring in the element of surprise with occasional new things. Rabbi Yaakov Levitin It’s a major work in progress but לולי דמסתפינא I would say that not only does תורה etc. need חיזוק, so do shabbos meals. First of all you want to make it extremely kid friendly. I found that by each meal you should read from the Zilberstein shaalos. The best books for this are called אחת שאלתי volume one and two. You should read the story which ends in a halachik shaala and then go around the table and get everyone’s opinion. Maybe a little treat for someone who can get the right answer. There can be more than one winner. After getting everyone’s opinion from young to old, you should then go on and read it to them. I do this by my shabbos meal and in class with my 5th grade talmidim, and everyone loves it. Another suggestion is to go to chinuch.org and search for “crack the code” by Rabbi Yaakov Levine. Print out enough for everyone by your table and make a game out of it, who can crack the Parsha code. I do this as well in class and by my shabbos meal, and it works wonders. Everyone is involved and they really look forward to it. I also send it home with my talmidim and the feedback I’ve gotten from parents is astronomical. It’s worth it. You should also have some good stories just in case. Make sure they are in captivating stories. Another idea is to have a lot of singing. In the beginning you may end up singing alone but what I’ve done to up the bar is, buy an added dessert and I tell the kids dessert tonight or by the day meal is ices, but if you are fully involved in the singing then there is another added dessert. That usually gets things started. Rabbi Shmuel Kaufmann Don't wait until Shabbos to start your Shabbos meal! Rabbi Gedalia Goldstein Rather than preparing a speech, prepare a discussion. Start with a question. Praise and discuss whatever answers are offered. Have a good story, personal or otherwise, that connects to your topic. (Tip: When preparing, find a good story first and go from there.) Living Emunah on the parsha is good. Rabbi Yoseph Wernick torahpoems.com Rabbi Yehuda Tzvi Friedman 1- Prepare for it. Daven it should work out. 2- Say entertaining stories. For younger children it should be said dramatically. For older children it should be riveting and interesting. 3- Make it conversational. Ask about the week in school. Ask Hashkafa questions. Talk about your childhood. 4- Sing and dance. Loosen up your mood so everyone can be happy. Arms over shoulders. Stand on chairs. Use motions. Hold children on your lap or put them on your shoulders! Just do it - you will not regret it! 5- Say divrei Torah. Ask your children to say over from school. Invite your big children to prepare their own. 6- Ask trivia questions on Parsha or any other subject. 7- Be well rested (or have some caffeine) and RELAX! It’s not always going to be perfect. It’s OK to bentch and not keep everyone hostage at the table. Roll with the punches. Rabbi Chaiyim Noson Halpern There is a nice book from a well known Mechanech Reb Dovid Kaplan on this topic called "How to run a successful Shabbos Table" Rabbi Yitzy Moeller 1. For all ages, I create Parsha Puzzlers which have pictures and everyone has to figure out what they have to do with the Parsha. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tYQWFRYYyuV0F-XxyNtvtfPry1dQXcim/view?usp=sharing 2. Get a hold of the famous Sefer "What If..." and have everyone attempt to get the correct answer. https://www.artscroll.com/Books/9781422613160.html 3. Listen or watch the Parsha Shiur of Rav Moshe Meir Weiss on Torah Anytime or Kol Halashon and get fascinating yet practical things to discuss. 4. Make or buy desserts with the parsha theme. 5. Read (or have some children read) from The Parsha set from Artscroll. https://www.artscroll.com/Books/9781422628478.html Rabbi Shmuel Reich Though everything is subject to being calibrated to your personality, family, etc, here are some suggestions: Rabbi Mordechai Edelson Here are some ideas for creating a more meaningful Shabbos table. Don't try to do all of these at every seuda, and don't think that if you do what it says here, you will suddenly have ''the perfect Shabbos table''. There is no magic key, every family is different, and every seuda is different, even in the same family. This is a list of ideas that when combined into your shabbos table routine hopefully will help you slowly see some change, hopefully it will be a bit more of a meaningful Shabbos table. · Food. Serve at least one or two foods that the people at the seuda will enjoy, whether it is a salad or a dip or croutons, or dessert. · Zemiros. Sing zemiros that the people at the seuda will enjoy [depending on what the participants like], don't think that just because you like singing, everyone else does too. Try to find something they like, and don't overdo it. · Dvar torah. Spend time during the week to prepare a nice dvar torah, not a drasha or shmuez. Say something intriguing or interesting or challenging. Use the seforim of Rav Y Galinsky, Rav Schwab, the maggid speaks or others. You don't have to memorize it, it is ok to read from a sefer or from your notes, but prepare something beforehand. Mothers spend hours shopping and preparing food before shabbos, and similarly fathers should spend some time beforehand preparing a dvar torah and conversation pieces. · Conversations or discussions. There are numerous ways to initiate conversations or discussions. During the week try to write down things of interest that happened or that you heard or saw, and say them over at table. Repeat what the Rav said by his drasha in shul or at the shalom zachor. Talk about someone who made a siyum or had some other chashuv accomplishment. Your children will pick up from your conversations, what it is that you are machshiv, and that is what they will be machshiv. If something comes up that you are not happy with, change the topic of conversation. Mention any simchas that are happening in your extended family. If a child has an accomplishment, bar mitzva, going to high school or seminary, getting a job, talk about it. Ask them to tell you about it. · Stories. Tell over a story. It is ok to read it, but find a good one before the seuda and come prepared. · Ask child to say something that happened to them during the week or something they learned in school. If more than one child has dvar torah or questions, take turns one at night and one by day. If the dvar torah or question is too long, ask child if he minds skipping some. Pay attention and show interest in what children are saying, turn their comments into a continued conversation, by asking about what they said or meant to say. · Ask child to prepare dvar torah or you give him dvar torah to say over. · Take note that the Shabbos table is not meant to be like school or shul, it is meant to be a time for family time. People should be happy to come to the table, and comfortable to get up and play if they are young. Accordingly all participants are not necessarily expected to sit at the table the entire time. You are the anchor, meaning you are running your meal and they are participating. If little kids want to get up and play, why not? When they get older they will stay by the table, why must they be forced to stay at the table while they are still young? It doesn't mean that they shouldn't be expected to sit at the table at least part of the time. You can set limits for a child and expect him to stay until after the salad or chicken etc. depends on what your family is interested if you feel it will help. · Candy. You can give out a treat for those who participate. Don't make it into an issue, but give out some candy for nice dvar torah or zemiros etc. if you feel it will help. · Length of seuda. Keep the seuda moving, not everyone is interested in the things you are interested in. If people are interested, good, if not serve the next course, and move on to the next thing and then bentch. · Goal. The goal is that you attempt to create an appropriate atmosphere for yourself where those who feel like it can join in a nice shabbos table, some will participate, some will not, but eventually they will begin to look forward to the seudos, and also as they get older they will know how a shabbos table looks like. Every seuda may be different. Sometimes people are tired or hungry. sometimes they are fighting about a seat or who should serve. It doesn't matter if not every seuda is the perfect seuda. What matters is that generally speaking you are running the seuda appropriately, and in the big picture you will have improved shabbos seudos be'h. Rabbi Sender Feldman Sgan Menahel, Menorah Grammar School, London, England There is a lovely parsha riddle book by Rabbi Michoel Alterman which is enjoyed by all ages. Or, there is a quiz book made by a yungerman in Gateshead England, his name is Rabbi Chaim Goldkin who has made really good quiz books on Jewish general knowledge. They are good, toiredige, Shabbos table games. Rabbi Yosef Pruzansky There are many different ways of adding meaning to a Shabbos table. Only some will work for you and your family. The very fact that you are looking for ways is already a huge step on the road to success. Rabbi Yitzy Robinson First of all, building a meaningful shabbos table is a PROCESS! It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes developing a certain household culture that, in turn, leads to a meaningful experience at the Shabbos table. Rabbi Shmuel Kleiner Here are some ways to make your Shabbos table more exciting: Rabbi Yechiel Cohen I put this together many years ago when my children were young Also, here is an article about how to conduct a Shabbos table by Rav Dovid Kaplan: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16qhTYoI6k9zbBJ0q0Xh1jE1OhqDKo8B0/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ga_juma33yw45gG4bJ-pzDmVbnt0WQqZ/view?usp=sharing © 2022 Torah Blast You are receiving this email because you expressed interest in receiving our emails. Visit us online at TorahBlast.com or contact info@torahblast.com for information regarding Torah Blast. Torah Blast 1086 Teaneck Road Teaneck, NJ 07666 |