L’Shana Tova…I hope the New Year has gotten off to a great start for you and your family!

It sure has been a terrific beginning here in the Torah Center! It was wonderful to see our students’ smiling faces! Now that summer is officially (well, as of Sunday!) over, its time for the fun (and learning!) to begin here at Temple. Rosh Hashana was a great way to kick it off – our students reconnected with old friends, met new ones, learned about the holiday, prayed together, and so much more. Check it out!

Kindergarten learned that Rosh Hashana is the birthday of the world and that hearing the shofar is an important part of the holiday. They decorated New Year’s Cards and made shofar necklaces:

1st Grade learned about the story of Creation and made booklets with pages for each day:

2nd Grade read a story about the World’s Birthday and made backpack pulls:

3rd and 4th Graders read a story about tashlich (the ritual of symbolically casting off the sins of the previous year by tossing pieces of bread or another food into a body of flowing water) and made bags to carry their pieces of bread. Some of them brought their bags to the Temple tashlich ceremony later that afternoon!

5th and 6th Graders read a story about the power of words – how our words can’t be taken back once spoken. They decorated challah covers to be distributed by Temple’s Caring Community to congregants recovering from illness:

It was a great morning!

Coming Up:

• 1st day of Sunday Torah Center Classes – THIS Sunday, September 20th, 9:30 am-12 noon [Grades K-6, Pre-K starts next week]
• 1st day of 7th Grade and the South Hills Jewish Community High School [SHJCHS] –  THIS Monday, September 21st, 6:30-8:30 pm [Grades 7-10]
• Torah Center Yom Kippur Programming for Kindergarten-6th Grade Wednesday, September 23rd at 9 am
• Teen Yom Kippur Service for grades 7-12, Wednesday, September 23rd at 11:45 am