Ometz Lev — Courage
Yom Kippur • Lech L’cha (Abraham & Sarah) • The Hardest Word • The Day You Begin
Read The Day You Begin; ask ‘When did you feel new or nervous, and brave anyway?’
Children wonder and discover; you facilitate more than you lecture.
- Why is it important to try new or hard things?
- How are starting a journey and saying sorry both brave?
- What helps you feel brave?
Ometz lev means ‘courage’ (literally ‘strength of heart’). Abraham and Sarah bravely left home for the unknown (Lech L’cha). Yom Kippur takes the courage to say sorry.
- Ometz lev — courage
- Lech L’cha — ‘go forth’
- Slicha — sorry
- “Why did God ask them to leave home?”
- To begin something new and important — and it took great courage to say yes.
- Children connect courage to both new adventures and apologizing.
- Children name a time they were brave.
The Day You Begin centers a child who feels different; use it to affirm every child’s belonging.
Folktale. Nachshon and the Sea (Midrash) — courage means being the first to step into the unknown.
Changemaker. Doña Gracia Nasi — five hundred years ago she used her own ships, again and again, to carry Jewish families out of danger.
What would you do to feel brave before trying something new?
“We explored courage. Try at home: share a time each of you did something brave, even something small.”