Purim Invite

Dear Parents,

“Happiness breaks through our sense of limitations.”

- A Chassidic Saying

Purim is the most fun of all the Jewish holidays. Although its message is profound (as I attempted to describe in my last letter), the festivities surrounding the holiday are great fun: We dress in costume, eat lots of yummy sweets and surround ourselves with spirit.

As a community, we are celebrating with a party on March 10^th at 5pm. We will be having a DRUM CIRCLE*, a festive MEAL and a MASQUERADE. We hope you will join us! For those of you who want to hear the Purim story in the original Hebrew, read from a “megillah” scroll, we will be reading it at 3:30pm.

Having a joyful disposition is a lifelong pursuit. It doesn’t come easy for most of us. While it may be relatively easy to feel pleasure, feeling joy is far more challenging. And being joyful is what really sustains us.

So how do we capture joy and make it our life view? I find that there are two components to accomplishing this:

1: I need to encourage myself to consistently see all the good that is around me, the good that I often take for granted.

2: When I feel the negative thoughts coming, I must find the strength to close down those ‘voices’ that threatens to take me down – to have “mind over matter” and to try to use my energies instead on finding solutions to the issues that are overwhelming me.

How we apply this message at Zimmer:

Throughout the day, we focus on the gifts we have. For example, before we eat snack and lunch, we take a moment to think about the fact that we are lucky to have yummy, healthy food we like, and parents who prepare it for us. (We make a blessing, too.) When we go outdoors we take the time to notice the incredible outdoor world we have. We talk about how fortunate we are that we have our friends, etc. This helps the children learn to notice the many gifts they have.

While we would not expect children of this age to quiet negative thoughts, they are able to have “mind over matter” with regard to other things, like if they want to shout/bite/hit/push/leave out another child. To help the children get used to the idea of making active choices, of having “mind over matter” we encourage the children to acknowledge what they are feeling, but then to STOP, to THINK, and to MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICE.

Sincerely,

Malkie

DRUM TALES combines the fun and music of a traditional Drumming Circle with story-telling. Each participant is given a percussive instrument, and their own musical and percussive personality. As the story unfolds, the characters step into the spotlight of the plot in motion, the different musical and percussive innovations follow the characters. ‘Drum Tales Purim’ is set in ancient Persia, with Queen Esther, King Antiochus and Mordechai. Join us for this exciting tale of mystery, miracles, triumph and joy!