A Preschooler’s Guide to Yom Kippur

Okay, so remember how Rosh Hashanah is a nice, joyful holiday, where we get to eat dessert to ensure a sweet new year? Yom Kippur is not the same…

We’ve really focused more on the happy end of the High Holidays in preschool – so I’ve been busy making Shanah Tovah cards, and apple & honey pie, and my own shofar.  Yom Kippur means fasting (for the grownups, anyway), and atoning for your sins, and praying to be forgiven.  We also use Yom Kippur to apologize to anyone we may have wronged in the past year, and resolve to do better.

Basically, we all need to remember to make good choices, as Mommy would say.

I learned an “I’m Sorry” song from Rabbi Brian, but I definitely do not sing it in the video below… or ever.  Mommy is not sure what the song sounds like, except that the lyrics are “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

So, to sum up: This Wednesday is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. We say sorry for the things we have done wrong and hope to do better in the new year. The grownups fast, which means Mommy will probably be Ms. CrankyPants, and then we all go out to dinner at the all you can eat Mongolian barbecue place. {That last part might be a very specific family tradition, rather than for Jews in general…}