Sweet Mitzvot- Acharei Mot Kedoshim

Another double parasha! Acharei Mot is important, with a thorough description of the avodah done by the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur. But as I explained to the girls, "We don't have the Beit Hamikdash, we aren't the Kohen Gadol, and it isn't Yom Kippur, so it doesn't apply to us right now." But Kedoshim describes numerous mitzvot that apply to all of us, all the time.

The idea of being holy and behaving that way was prompted by the girls, right before we started learning about it. I had the parasha book on my lap and Gabi was getting ready for bed.
"Is it ok that I am going to sleep in leggings and a T-shirt?" she declared. (The idea here is no skirts)
"Sometimes I see ladies outside running in only leggings. Is that ok?" Cohava asked.
"Good question," I replied. "This week's second parasha is Kedoshim. In it Hashem says that we are holy because He is holy. So we act and dress, think and do things in a certain way to keep our specialness. Who is our Abba in Shamayim?"
"Abba?"
"Rabbi?"
"Hashem!"
"Oh!"
And then we began learning some of the mitzvot. Kibud av v'Em, honoring one's parents is one of my favorites to teach. Cohava came home with a lovely card which described the mitzvah and how she will try to uphold it. V'ahavta l'reyacha kamocha, love your neighbor as yourself is definitely another.

But making a project from these wonderful mitzvot wasn't very easy because it was a very busy week.
Highlights include Yom Haatzmaut and my Hebrew Birthday. Obviously I only focused on the Jewish calendar with the girls, but the general calendar does play a role. In this case it was left over Easter candy. Although there isn't much kosher, I found some good cheap stuff. Amazingly the M&Ms were perfect for Yom Haatzmaut. However the pareve bunny chocolates were creepy looking and didn't taste good. But I decided without the ears, they looked like smiling people (maybe I used too much imagination).

 Since the girls were busy every afternoon this week, I made the project myself. Using this recipe (without the milk and with red food coloring) I made heart shaped cookies and placed the smiley bunny people inside.

 I explained to the girls that these were "V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha" cookies, which is why they had happy faces and love hearts. And then I explained that they were made for sharing more than eating. My plan was for the cookies to come to shul and the girls to distribute them to everyone, and explaining this mitzvah. The cookies were yum, but my plans for the project didn't come to fruition.