Yom Kippur

The holiday of Yom Kippur is a time for a fresh start. We prepare by gathering as many mitzvos as we can so that when Hashem decides how our year will turn out, He sees that our good choices far outweigh anything else.

We all thought of good deeds we can do and placed a unifix block on the scale for each one.

Morah described a few mistakes we might  make and used a black cube for each one but the 'good choices' side was much heavier!! 

 

 

KAPAROS!!

There is an ancient Jewish custom that on the eve of Yom Kippur, we ask Hashem to take any potential 'bad decrees' which may be in store for us in the coming year and transform them into good outcomes.
This is illustrated by taking a chicken and turning it around our heads in a circle. The chicken has the power to be used for a mitzvah (to feed poor people). The chicken takes on any potential negatives and transforms them into a mitzvah, being used for a good purpose.

Alternatives to chicken include using money and some communities use a fish.

Rabbi Naftali brought a male rooster for the boys in K2 and a female chicken for the girls in K2. He helped us do kaparos and say the special prayer. 

What do we do on Yom Kippur? What don't we do??

K2 looked at some of the 'dos and donts' of the day itself. We used two sorting rings and pulled items from a 'magic bag'. We discussed each one as it was pulled out and decided if it should go in the DO or DON'T ring.

 

  

 
• We DO pray in shul all day using a special siddur/prayer book called a machzor
• We DO wear shoes which are not made of leather
• We DO often wear white
  (men wear a special jacket like a lab coat called a kittel)

            We do NOT eat or drink (above the age of 12 for girls and 13 for boys)

               We do NOT wear make-up, cream and perfume
                We do NOT have a bath or shower