There are many symbols for the home, but the first one we usually see is a little box hung by the door, this box is called a mezuzah. Mezuzah is the hebrew word for doorposts.
Why do we fix a mezuzah to our doorposts? The passover story, which we will learn a little later on in the year, we see that the israelites followed a similar practice. During the last plague they smeared their doorposts and this sign kept their families safe.
Today a mezuzah is a sign that a jewish family lives in that house, it is reminds us that we want our home to be a jewish home. That we want our home to be filled with joy and love and family peace - shalom bayit and that it is a place God can be found.
Inside the mezzuzah is a special paper called parchment with the shema and vehaya. We learnt the shema in song today.
On the mezuzah is the hebrew letter 'shin' which stands for shaddai a hebrew word which means guardian of the doors of Israel. It is also the name of God.
When we hang a mezzuzah we have a ceremony. This is a dedication of our home, like when the Macabees cleaned up the Temple, they had a dedication ceremony to make it a place where God could be found. We will learn all about this at our next lesson.
Today we learn to sing the Shema :
Shema Israel , Adonai Eloheinu , Adonai Echad
Hear o Israel, Hashem is our God, Hashem is One
And with actions :
Shema (Listen) - so we hold our hands behind the ears
Israel (being the people, you and I) so we make a circle infront of us.
Hashem (being everywhere too, but we lift up as Adonai is above us, not specifically in the heavens though, but above our heads) raise both hands up.
Eloheinu (Our God) so we embrace and hug ourselves
Hashem- we raise the hands upward again
Echad (One ) so you point with one finger.
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