Launch — From Learner to Leader

Ask: “Name someone who led you well.” Then ask what that person actually DID — the specific action. Collect the verbs on the board. That list is your definition of leadership, and they wrote it.

Children wonder and discover; you facilitate more than you lecture.

• What is the difference between being good at something and leading it?
• Who has led you well, and what did they actually do?
• What kind of Jewish adult are you becoming?

This year has a real destination: these students will lead T’filah segments, mentor younger children, and stand up as B’nei Mitzvah. The opening session has to shift how they see themselves — from people who receive the tradition to people who carry it. Jewish leadership is consistently framed as service and responsibility, not authority. Moses argues that he is the wrong choice. Every leader in Torah is reluctant, flawed, and chosen anyway. Eleven- and twelve-year-olds find that enormously relieving, and it is true.

• Manhig / manhigah — leader
• Sh’liach tzibur — the one who prays on behalf of the community
• Achrayut — responsibility

“What if I am not a leader type?”

Almost nobody in Torah was. Moses said he was a bad speaker. Being chosen and feeling ready are two different things.

“Why do I have to help the little kids?”

Because teaching something is how you find out you actually know it — and because someone did it for you.

• Students can describe leadership as service rather than status.
• Students can name a leader in their own life and what that person did.
• Students can state one thing they want to be able to lead by June.

Some students arrive dreading their B’nei Mitzvah and some cannot wait. Both belong in the room and neither needs persuading. Keep the frame on becoming rather than performing, and never rank students by how much Hebrew they already have.

Folktale. Moses at the Burning Bush (Torah, Exodus 3) — the leader who says “who am I?” and is sent anyway, with help.

Changemaker. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel — marched at Selma beside Dr King and said afterwards that he felt his legs were praying.

I wonder what you would want a younger student to say about you at the end of this year?

“We began the year by asking what leadership really is. Try at home: tell your child about a time you had to lead something before you felt ready.”