Yom Kippur

Plan a gentle ‘tashlich’ moment — toss bread pieces (or paper crumbs) into a bowl to ‘let go’ of mistakes.

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

• Why is it important to say sorry?
• When have you said sorry?
• How do we feel after we say sorry?

Yom Kippur is the day we say sorry to people and to God and promise to try again. Tashlich is throwing crumbs to symbolically let go of last year’s mistakes. Grown-ups fast to focus on prayer.

• Slicha — sorry / forgiveness
• Tashlich — casting off

“Why do grown-ups not eat?”

To help them think hard about being kind and saying sorry — it’s only for grown-ups.

• Children understand Yom Kippur as a day for saying sorry and starting fresh.
• Children practice repair in their own words.

Keep examples small and child-sized (a toy taken, a hurt feeling). Avoid shame — the message is ‘everyone makes mistakes and everyone can repair.’

Folktale. The Two Brothers Who Made Peace (Land-of-Israel legend) — two brothers quietly forgive and care for each other on the very hill where the Temple stood.

Changemaker. Sandy Koufax — a baseball superstar who chose not to play on Yom Kippur to honor the holy day.

I wonder how it feels to say sorry — and to forgive?

“We practiced saying sorry and starting fresh. Try at home: share one ‘sorry’ and one ‘I forgive you’ around the table.”