Aaron's oneg

SJCS has a short Shabbat service every Friday afternoon (one for the lower grades and a separate one for the upper grades) and at each service, two kids are specially honored. It's a beautiful thing. In the lower grades, the honored child has some special responsibilities (like setting up, and leading the blessings), their family attends, and they get a series of awesome compliments from classmates, from friends in other grades, from teachers, and from family. There are a lot of fun songs with excellent kid leadership. This is K-2, so ages 6-8... really flippin' cute, and also, they really know how to lead a room, which is awesome. I attend whenever I get a chance.

We attended Aaron's oneg (shabbat celebration) several weeks ago (okay, it was in February...) and wow, what sea of love! Each classmate prepared a whole page-size picture and a couple sentences saying what they like about Aaron, and some of these are read aloud in the ceremony. Other compliments are spontaneous. Aaron chose his Hebrew teacher, Morah Iris (Morah means Teacher), to compliment him, and she said "Simcha, I like you so much because you are so SIMCHA!" (simcha means joy!) and she went on to explain that his heart is so full of joy in all that he does, and also she loves how he makes WHOLE SENTENCES for her in Hebrew. Wow. 

Then two of the teachers told a Torah story using puppets, Mazel the Moose and Yonkel the rabbit. The lights went out and Mazel was afraid of the dark and did not know what to do, and he asked the children for help, and Aaron ... taught Mazel how to find the light within. He said that if you are nervous you can look inside yourself and feel something like a light, and you won't be afraid anymore because you will feel that light in you. Mazel tried to do this physically! (it was very funny) and said all he saw was his own furry stomach and his intestines, so instead, Aaron demonstrated. He got quiet and closed his eyes and took deep clean breaths. Mazel narrated everything he saw Aaron do. The whole room was suspended. And Mazel understood, and felt so much better, and he looked and saw the light in everyone else in the room, and he was amazed and said Aaron had really helped him. Yonkel reminded Mazel of a song about the light in the heart, and we all sang it. 

After it was all over I hugged him and told him how special that was, and he said, "Mommy that's what I do in bed every night!" I thought again how transparent Aaron is. He is just sharing his whole self.