Hi! My name is Shaina, I am 9 months old. I was so excited to see that picture of myself on this scrapbook page. I think it's because I too experienced the first of the Aseret Hadibrot.
"I am the Lord your G-d, who took you out of the land of Egypt." G-d took the Jewish people out of Egypt once, but He wants each of us to break out of our own personal Egypt every day!
For the past few months I've been slithering around on my stomach to catch up with my siblings. I wanted to crawl but there was a little "Pharaoh" voice inside me that said that I wasn't ready yet. Today, I got rid of that silly king, and just started to crawl! I broke through my own personal boundaries and limitations!
My sister, Rochie, has studied almost all the Alef-Bet lettes at school. I'm sure that very soon she too will break out of her Egypt and read words, and then I'll get her to read me a good story!
My sister, Mushka, who is in the second grade, has lots of tests! A student who says that she can not get more than an 80% on her test is stuck in her personal Egypt. Getting a 90% is the way to go!
We also discovered three suitcases. (At first I thought they belonged to the Kaufmans.) From the items inside I realized that they belonged to famous people who experienced true freedom!
The first suitcase belonged to Helen Keller. Although she couldn't see or hear, she refused to be a slave to the "Pharaoh" within and despite her handicap she learnt to lead a meaningful life and even learnt to speak!
The second suitcase belonged to Rabbi Akiva. Did you know that he started learning the Alef Bet at the age of 40?! Akiva broke out of his Egypt and ended up becoming a famous Torah scholar and Sage who had 24,000 students!
The last suitcase belonged to a famous violinist whose violin string snapped during a concert. Instead of saying "I can't play anymore," he rearranged the music on the spot and displayed a true Exodus from Egypt.
We ended off by writing our own example of a situation where we thought we couldn't do something (on pink paper), and how we successfully broke through our limitations and did it (on green paper). Then we had fun matching the pink and green cards!
Here are some situations that the kids wrote about:
*I used to think that I could never ride a roller coaster...but then I rode it ten times.
*I used to think that I couldn't swim...but I broke through Egypt and now I can.
*I couldn't Hula Hoop...but then I learned to hula loop on my arm.
* I used to think that I couldn't open my locker on my first try... but I broke my Egypt and was able to open my lock on the first try!
Please feel free to post more examples in the comments.
Love,
Shaina
Chanie,
ReplyDeleteThere was one time I didn't think I could go
down the escalator, but a nice lady grabbed my hand and helped me down. But now I am able to go down the escalator by myself.
Madison Stopera
Dear Maddy,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for sharing! There is a Jewish saying that says: "A person learns most from their students."
I learnt something from your experience. Just like that nice lady helped you, we can all try to help our younger siblings, friends, and other people go out of their "Egypt" too!
Can you think of a time when you helped your twin sisters do something that they thought they couldn't do?
Thank you for always participating so nicely at our Jewish Scrapbooking Club!
Love,
Chanie