Fourth Graders Experience Mitzvah

of Honoring the Wise at the Medallion 

 

 

BYDS Fourth Grade students participated in the mitzvah of Vehadarta Pnei Zaken (honoring the elders) on Wednesday this week at the Medallion, a very exciting and meaningful event for all involved. The root idea of this mitzvah (as stated in Sefer Hachinich, The book of Education,) is that a person is mainly in this world in order to acquire wisdom, and that people should honor one who has achieved wisdom and will encourage others to do so as well.

 

The students greeted the residents of the Medallion with blessings for the New Year, added songs led by Mrs. Grinberg and Bette Gorme, and continued with an art project, led by Mrs. Jodi Gold and Ms. Alisa Golan. The project focused on decorating honey jars for the Rosh Hashanah family table with different kinds of paints and colors, mainly in the shapes of the High Holidays' symbols.

 

 

Students decorated their own honey jars and helped the elders with decorating their personal honey jars while developing valuable skills of conversing with the elders and listening to their personal stories. One of the residents was an immigrant from a small town in Germany, who moved to New York in 1936, right before World War II. One of the students asked him if he escaped the Nazis. He answered that he was wise enough to leave Germany right before the war, but returned to Europe as an American soldier and fought the Nazis, as most of his family was sent to a concentration camp. What a story!

 

Another resident shared a story of the time she was an artist who won several awards decorating glass. The students were astonished to see her high quality art work, showing thke expertise she spoke about that had been part of her entire life. 

 

 

As we approach the New Year and prepare to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and the Holidays with our families, this tradition of honoring our elders will be a value our children will carry forth from generation to generation, Midor Ledor.  

 

 

Shabbat Shalom