TEMPLE HIGHLIGHTS | RABBI'S MONTHLY COLUMN

Pre-School keeps gates of wonder wide open

From the study of Rabbi Stern

The month of May brings us the final weeks of the period in the Jewish calendar we call the Omer – the ritualized counting out, day by day, of the seven week bridge from the beginning of Passover to the festival of Shavuot. Traditionally, the Omer is observed as a period of semi-mourning, a time when (with the exception of Lag B’Omer, the thirty-third day of the counting) we are to refrain from certain festivities and celebrations. But mourning customs aside, the Omer comes each year as a reminder of the importance of paying attention to each day, one day at a time.

How appropriate then that this month of May also brings us to the conclusion of a year of celebration of the twenty-five year anniversary of our Temple Pre-School. Day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, the Temple Emanu-El Pre-School has continued to blossom as a place of Jewish joy and wonder for a quarter-century’s worth of children and their families. This is the place where they learned to count: not just colored blocks, but colored Chanukah candles. This is the place where they have learned to sing – not just nursery rhymes, but the blessings which usher in the wide-eyed wonder of Shabbat and holidays. This is the place where for twenty-five years, our kids have built Jewish foundations of exploration and laughter, caring and friendship, dance and joy.

Recently, I saw one of our four year-old Temple Pre-Schoolers around town with her family and she asked, “Why didn’t I see you in my school today?” And I thought to myself -- she gets it. This little girl understands that it is her school – her place of safety and discovery and growth. And she understands that it is a place where her rabbis belong – because she associates all of that safety and discovery and growth with the powerful joy of being Jewish.

This is the place where our kids have learned and never forgotten that Temple is truly theirs, where the success of the Pre-School has deeply enhanced congregational life – not just because the Pre-School kids add joy and brightness to these halls each day, but because of the enduring impact of their time here. More than once, I have officiated at the Bat (or Bar) Mitzvah of a child who called to the bima for an honor “all of her friends from the Temple Pre-School” – that is, friends she had made when she was two years old, being called to the bima now, because the friendships formed in this sacred place among children and families can last not only until Bar or Bat Mitzvah, but for a lifetime. And those friendships are honored not only with the invitation to a birthday party or a baseball game, but with an invitation to come to the bima to join in the celebration of each other’s Jewish identities.

In this season of counting, the moments are beyond counting – all the days and ways this magical place has kept the gates of wonder open wide. As this school year of celebration comes to a close, we give thanks to God for students, teachers, families and staff – all of those who continue to make our Pre-School and our congregation a place of sacred encounter and Jewish hope.