Emor 5780 - Youth Tefillah Blog

This week’s Torah portion is Emor. In this portion, we learn all about the holidays! What is a holiday? Well, there are places and things that are special to us. Special places, like our houses or special things like teddy bears or blankets. In fact, last week, we talked about a special place called the Mishkan. We also have special people in our lives!

Who is someone that is special to you?

We also have times that special to us. One time that might be special to you is your birthday! You might celebrate it with cake and singing. Each special time has certain activities. In this Torah portion, we learn about the special times that all of us as Jews share.

We learn about seven holidays. Can you guess what they are? There is one coming in a few weeks, do you know what it is?

They are Yom Kippur, Shabbat, Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret. (Did you guess them all right?) It is a bit of a tricky list. You might notice that two holidays, Purim and Hanukkah are missing! That is because when we look at the Torah, Purim and Hanukkah happen way after the story of the Torah. They haven’t happened yet!

On each of these holidays, we have special activities we do. We cook special foods, we celebrate them with special people, and we use some of our special things.

Can you find some of those special items in your house? Can you remember any of those special foods?

In Parashat Emor, we are reminded how lucky we are to have all of these special times to spend with each other.

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