June 2022

During most summers, the school leadership team and I dedicate a week to deep learning as we explore ways to further develop our school. This process involves setting aside our daily task lists and schedules for the coming year as we instead dedicate our attention on expanding our thinking and dreaming of new opportunities for our students. For the past two summers, as we focused on remaining open during Covid, we had less time for this process and I am excited to re-engage with this exciting work this summer. 

Many summers, this process includes a variety of reading material that challenges our thinking and creates shared language among team members. A few summers ago, we read a popular book called The Power of Moments. The core idea of the book focuses on how to best engineer significant moments so they become lasting, memorable and inspiring. When I reflect on the last month at school and special event days such as Yom Haatzmaut and Lag B’Omer, I am reminded how critical this approach to creating memories is for our students. 

Turning attention to the upcoming chag of Shavuot, I imagine many students will stay up late, indulging in inordinate amounts of ice cream and hopefully ingesting a comparable amount of Torah.  Sometimes, when I wonder if it really makes sense, I am reminded of this idea of forming lasting memories. Even if our children can’t yet articulate it, there is something special in the air about staying up for Leil HaSeder or Tikkun Leil Shavuot. 

There is an ancient custom, first recorded by the Rokeach nearly 1000 years ago, to bring children to shul to learn for the first time on Shavuot. In order to demonstrate the sweetness of Torah study, the rabbi would drizzle honey on the aleph bet board and the child would enjoy the honey after repeating each letter. I find it amazing that Chazal understood the importance of creating lasting memories years before social scientists were writing about it.

As we approach this Z’man Matan Torahteinu, I hope you and your families will enjoy and create many of the moments and memories.  This is also an appropriate moment for me to acknowledge and thank Chazan Yaakov and Mrs. Marsha Motzen and Morah Jordana Baruchov for enhancing our Sefirat HaOmer count this year by securing many of our eclectic group of celebrity counters. It certainly made our counting that much more memorable.

Wishing you a chag sameach,

Rabbi Jonathan Knapp

Head of School