Set Induction: Finding God’s Imprint (15 minutes)
6-8 pictures from newspapers/magazines that show things like: a newborn baby, a beautiful garden, mountaintops, animals, wind/rain, people hugging, etc. will be displayed throughout the room. Have students and families identify the pictures, and stand by the picture that most reminds them of God. While the students are standing by a picture, ask: “How does this picture remind of you God? How do it show God’s imprint on the world?
God Scavenger Hunt (20 minutes)
Tell the participants that they are about to go on a hunt for signs of God in and around the school or synagogue building. Participants will be divided into small groups (2 families per group, or divide the group by class with teachers and support staff/madrichim as leaders). Explain that they will be looking for things that remind them of God or things that teach them about God. Groups will be asked to take pictures of their hunt on their camera phones, and submit them to teacher via email. Each group will have a handout to fill out to guide their hunt.
**Parents and teachers are encouraged to use cell phones to look up answers, if needed.
God Scavenger Hunt Debrief (10 minutes)
Bring participants back together and explain that there are many different ways of thinking about and experiencing God. When we are scared, for example, we want God to be there with us and make us feel safe. If we see a rainbow, we may feel that God is in that beauty in all creations. On the other hand, when bad things happen, we ask ourselves where God is. All of these thoughts about God are normal and everyone shares them. Our views of God change and grow as we change and grow.
When participants return, they will record their response to the question, “How do you find God in these things, people, and places?” on a large sticky-post it note.
Ask participants to share their findings on the scavenger hunt, and invite them to share some of the things, people, or places, that they found God. Ask them to describe the things, people, or places, and identify why God may be present in them.
Road Signs to God, Part I (5 minutes)
Read the 18th century Chasidic parable below:
Rabbi Baruch’s grandson, Yechiel, was playing hide-and-seek with another boy. He hid himself well and waiting for his playmate to find him. After waiting a long time, he came from his hiding place, but the other was nowhere in sight. Now he realized that the boy had not looked for him. Weeping, he came to his grandfather to complain of his faithless friend. Rabbi Baruch’s eyes, too, brimmed with tears, and he said: God says the same thing: I hide, but no one wants to seek Me.”
Ask: What does the story mean? (God is not always easy to find, God wants us to search for God...).
Road Signs to God, Part II (15 minutes)
Explain to participants that they are going to create their own “road map” to help in their search for God. Have individual families work together to fill in the “Road Map to God.” Classes may also work with their teachers and support staff/madrichim to create a class “Road Map to God.” When the map activity is completed, ask families and classes to share their road maps.
Conclusion:
Wrap Up, Clean Up (10 minutes)
Ask: What does “Road Work Ahead” mean if you are searching for God? (One answer is that it takes “work” to find God)
Ask: What is the Hebrew word for the “work” we do when we are looking for God? (
Avodah, which means the work we do to find and connect to God, and it includes prayers, blessings, rituals, celebrations, and ceremonies). Explain that next time, we will be examining how
mitzvot is connected to the
avodah we must put in to having a relationship with God.