At Temple Beth Shalom, we like to recognize our students’ accomplishments whenever we can. So when our twenty-three 4th-graders finished Shalom Uvrachah, and had learned to decode the alef-bet, we planned a siyyum (“conclusion”) ceremony to mark the milestone with their families. We wanted to recognize and celebrate the beginning of the children’s path toward becoming b’nai mitzvah.

In planning the siyyum, students wrote an “Alef Bet of Jewish Values,” based on the cultural and heritage words they had learned in Shalom Uvrachah.

Students assigned a Jewish value to each letter, and wrote their own explanation. For example, for the letter alef, Marisa assigned the value of emet (truth) and wrote: “It’s very important to tell the truth (emet) because if you don’t, it can turn into a big lie.”

At the siyyum, the children sang the alef-bet song for their parents, grandparents, and siblings, and chanted the Sh’ma and other songs and blessings. Then they read aloud their explanations of the values. The families kvelled. “I can’t believe he’s already reading Hebrew. Before you know it, he’ll be preparing for his bar mitzvah” said Max’s mother. “What a beautiful ceremony. I’ve never seen the Hebrew language honored so articulately,” said Ethan’s mom.

After the ceremony, we ate giant sugar cookies on which I had written each student’s Hebrew name in blue icing, as well as the names of Jewish values such as kavod (honor), hesed (kindness) and simhah (joy).

Below are other Jewish values, in the words of our children.

Bet: B’rit—B’rit, which means “agreement,” is important to me because it helps me not start arguments. (Ethan)

Vav: V’ahavta—The name of the V’ahavta prayer means “and you shall love.” The Torah teaches us to love God and to pass the words of the Torah down to our children. (Hannah)

Het: Heshbon ha-Nefesh—My value means “making a list of the things in our soul.” This phrase is important to me because you always have room to improve yourself. (Sam)

Nun: Neshamah—My soul (neshamah) makes me different from my brothers and sisters. Also, my soul helps me make good decisions and it keeps me being myself. (Danny)

Samech: Siddur—My word means “prayer book.” We can use this book to pray and to thank God for what he/she has done. (Justin)

Tzadi: Tzedakah—My word means “justice.” I give tzedakah in Hebrew school to help different charities, like Mazon. (Rebecca )

Tav: Talmud Torah—My word is Talmud Torah which means “study of the Torah.” I chose this word because we learn lifelong lessons by studying the Torah. I can also tell these stories to my children. (Zachary)

Ellyn Becker Kaufman’s students read their explanations of the Jewish values

Ellyn Becker Kaufman is Director of Education at Temple Beth Shalom, Arnold, MD. She can be reached at tbsedu@comcast.net