Vayigash- Say it before you go!

The ultimate resolution and denouement occur in this week's perasha.  It is all very happily ever after (for a little while) but there is a dearth of perasha projects on Vayigash.

I looked at Yaakov's preparation to leave Israel for Egypt. He brings a sacrifice and then has a conversation with Hashem.  I connected this with Tefilat Ha'derech, the prayer we say before travel.

In school we talked about travel. We played, "I'm going to Mitzrayim and in my suitcase I packed...". The kids really enjoyed it. Then they voted on how they thought Yaakov and his family traveled to Egypt. They were disappointed that 'car' was incorrect.

In pre-school, 3rd grade, and at home, we made tefilat hadrech cards/key chains! (And talked about sacrifices not being allowed on airplanes).

On the back they glued a poem I wrote

"Before I travel a long way
I take a moment to stop and pray
Like Yaakov, when he went away
Tefilat Haderech is what I say"

1) Cut out words and glue to cardstock ( I found pre-cut ovals).
2)Decorate paper.
3)Poke hole in top and laminate.

4) String beads onto a zip tie. (I love zip tie beading, like we did here for Vayetzei)

 Tada

 Rocking it, with Tefilat Hederech on my handbag!

My initial plan was to focus on the social emotional pieces, as they are more intense than anything we generally face. I read some blogs about the best way to say 'I'm sorry', and made an action plan. I gathered the family, and the whole plan collapsed with too many emotional pieces for me to contain! The little girls stayed and made these, but the concept was too hard for them.  (Sometimes people ask me how I come up with so many great ideas. Sometimes I come up with great ideas that just don't work out,)

May Hashem help keep our failures small, our successes huge, at home and on journeys!

 This was a neat image puzzle that spelled out 'Tell the Truth" we pretended it was hieroglyphics. When I find the link I'll share it.

Vayigash- The sweet sound of truth

Two weeks ago, in parashat Vayeshev, the blog was about telling the truth and the consequence of a lie. This week, in parashat Vayigash, the brothers finally come clean about their enormous lie. 
But once you have told a lie, and maintained it for more than two decades, how easy is it to be honest and be believed? Like the famous parable, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Yaakov does not believe his sons when they return from Egypt and declare Yosef still alive. The Torah states that 'his heart did not believe', which is an interesting distinction. Maybe intellectually he understood the truth, but his heart could not accept the double facts of his ten lying sons and Yosef being alive.
The midrash explains that in order to ease Yaakov's heart, this earth-shattering information was shared through music. Serach, the daughter of Asher, played the harp for Yaakov and sang to him of Yosef's status. The music calmed Yaakov and made him able to accept the truth. Serach was rewarded with remarkable longevity.

I had hoped that the importance of honesty we discussed in Vayeshev would have made a bigger impact on my children. Sadly fibs are still be uttered so this week, in the very little free time we had, we talked about Serach's great mitzvah of telling the truth. 
We were going to make 'harps' for a physical representation of the truth. But there wasn't time. So we only spoke about the differences between string, wind, and percussion instruments. 
If we had made them, with rubber bands and boxes, coat hangers, or baking pans they would have looked something like this:

Shabbat Shalom!

We did try it. I found a pyrex dish worked best for a base. The girls each chose something from the recycling bin and made some music.