Endings Matter
April 20, 2009
Last spring we tried something new, and this year when we do it again it will have become a Temple Emanu-El tradition: the closing assembly and reception on the last day of religious school.
On Sunday morning, May 17th, our students, parents, and teachers will gather together in the sanctuary to honor many indispensible members of our community, to celebrate the year’s accomplishments, and to learn from one another.
In recent weeks I’ve heard a number of people declare, in one context or another, that May 3rd is the last day of school. Now while it is true that May 3rd will be our last day of regular classroom instruction, I’d like to share with you the ways in which our siyyum, our ritual for concluding this year of study, is a substantive and indispensable part of our children’s education.
We tell our kids a lot about the value of an endeavor by how we end it. A movie, a life performance, a sports season, a worship service, even an ordinary day all have their concluding rituals: credits, curtain calls, banquets, songs, blessings, the feeding of pets. To arrive at the end of a year of instruction and walk away without ceremony might suggest to our students, our children, that we value that instruction but lightly.
By contrast, to mark the end of our school year with appropriate ceremony or ritual gives us not only a sense of the significance of the project, it also extends our learning.
How important is it that our children learn to say “thank you”? At our siyyum we will thank our teachers, to Leona Glazer (though not for the last time!), others who help enliven and sustain our students’ learning.
How would you like your child to remember something from this year for the rest of their lives, or at least until opening day next fall? At our siyyum our students will reinforce their learning by presenting it to others. Every student will be asked to share something: a song, a prayer, an artistic or edible Jewish creation, a skit, a new idea or accomplishment. As I heard the mother of a Bat Mitzvah student say earlier this spring, you learn things better when you have to communicate them to others.
This year our theme has been “Mitzvah,” which means obligation, commandment, or good deed. We will take the opportunity at our siyyum, collectively and individually, to reflect on the many ways in which we have made progress toward fulfilling and more deeply understanding our Jewish obligation to make the world a better place.
All this, and food, music and dancing too—a celebration of Jewish community, an opportunity to enjoy some time together, a sweet semicolon along the way to lifelong Jewish learning.
Endings matter. Don’t miss this one.
