So, we’re going to bail on the Torah Portion cycle for the rest of the year in order to talk about the Fall Feasts over the course of the next three weeks. We start at the very beginning (a very good place to start) with the Coronation Festival of Rosh HaShanah or Yom Teruah. It is my hope to get the kids excited about celebrating the coronation of our King!

One of my favorite things about the Feasts is listening to a musical group called the Maccabeats. Some are hilarious and some are very touching, but many of them revolve around the feasts. See if you can spot the inside jokes that we see throughout the videos – like the three Greek bullies from “Candlelight” and the NASA space costume from – well almost all of the videos!

This one involves something I just barely mentioned – the books being opened on  Rosh HaShanah. There is the book of life, which we are all familiar with, but Daniel 7 says that there were multiple books! Maybe sometime we will get into those at some point. On Rosh HaShanah, a traditional Jewish greeting is “May you be inscribed for a good year.” There is an extra focus on doing good deeds and focusing on repentance during the ten days between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur, which can be a very valuable lesson for the kids – of all ages!

The tithe system of ancient Israel can be really difficult to understand when you are just reading it out of the Bible – there are obviously multiple tithes being talked about, but what are they and who did they belong to? This week we are going to learn the different tithes and some Hebrew too!

Here is a very professional (ha ha) flowchart I had made up at great personal expense to help you with this week’s lesson
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Here is an actually professional looking Spanish version of the chart made by my friend Edgar Gonzalez (now you can laugh at my lame version)

Also, a friend sent me a super cool youtube channel that teaches singing prayers in Hebrew – check it out!

You can’t even go shopping without seeing people being lied about in the tabloids – false accusations everywhere! God gave Israel some very specific laws in this week’s Torah portion about what is called a “malicious witness” – they had to pay the penalty for the crime they accused someone else of committing if they had lied! Sometimes that penalty was death, but at the very least it was 39 lashes!

That’s very different than here in the United States where you actually have to sue someone if they lie about you, and suing someone is way too expensive for most people! That means that people are almost never punished for their lies, no matter how badly it hurts someone else’s life.

I wanted you to check out this awesome poem written by Abbi Henkel after taking lesson #20 in Context for Kids: Honor and Shame in the Bible – she definitely nailed it!

“His name is like no other,

He is worthy of esteem,

Praise and exaltation are His words,

Though by some, he is taunted and despised.

His forgiveness and splendor surpasses all,

Those who reproach Him will turn in embarrassment.

Whether His honor grows or decreases

His love will always shine”