Hachnasat Orchim — Welcoming
Sukkot • Vayeira (The Welcoming Tent) • Chayei Sarah (Rebecca & the Camels)
Role-play greeting a new classmate; connect to the open sukkah.
Children wonder and discover; you facilitate more than you lecture.
- Why is it important to welcome strangers?
- How can we welcome or help others in our own lives?
- How does welcoming connect to Sukkot?
Hachnasat orchim — welcoming guests — is a great mitzvah. Abraham and Sarah ran to welcome strangers; Rebecca drew water for a stranger and his camels.
- Hachnasat orchim — welcoming guests
- Sukkah — hut
- “Why welcome people we don’t know?”
- Because everyone deserves kindness, and we never know what a guest needs.
- Children connect hachnasat orchim to Sukkot and to Abraham, Sarah, and Rebecca.
- Children practice welcoming behaviors.
A natural moment to celebrate that Mount Zion welcomes all families and newcomers.
Folktale. Abraham’s Open Tent (Midrash) — Abraham’s tent is open on all four sides so every traveler feels welcome.
Changemaker. Our greeters — the people who stand at the door on a Saturday morning and say good Shabbos to everybody who comes in, including the ones they have never met.
What would you do to make a new kid feel welcome?
“We practiced welcoming guests. Try at home: welcome someone this week — a guest, a new neighbor, or a new friend.”