What do you value?
What do you believe are attributes of character?
What behaviors do you believe are intrinsic to building a caring, and cared for, community?
These are questions that lie at the heart of a Yavneh Day School education and our signature values program, Keshet of Kavod – Rainbow of Respect.
In Parashat Noach, we learn that, “אֶת־קַשְׁתִּ֕י נָתַ֖תִּי בֶּֽעָנָ֑ן וְהָֽיְתָה֙ לְא֣וֹת בְּרִ֔ית בֵּינִ֖י וּבֵ֥ין הָאָֽרֶץ”
“I have set My bow in the clouds, and it shall serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” (Gen 9:13)
God creates this beautiful visual symbol that reminds us all that we must strive to do better, to be brighter, and to bend the moral arc towards justice. So too do we do every Rosh Chodesh, every new Hebrew month, when our eighth grade Keshet Krew teaches the newest middah (character attribute) that our school community has chosen to be our guiding values for the year.
See, what the students in the audience at our Monday assemblies learn about is a new behavior to strive towards. What the eighth graders have studied behind the scenes is the power of the Yetzer – the creative, creating force within us. It can be good (Yetzer HaTov) or a little more on the wild side (Yetzer HaRa). They study a passage from Avot D’Rabbi Natan that explains, “The yetzer hara is 13 years older than the yetzer hatov…But 13 years later, the yetzer hatov is born.” (Avot d’Rabbi Natan 16).
How appropriate for a group of 13 year olds.
This passage, amongst others that the Keshet Krew studies, suggests we all start with our wilder, more difficult, inclinations being stronger. That’s pretty normal. Our Bible Buddy Noah stood out for being “blameless in his time” (Gen 6:9). So too are our kids – blameless, until they know better, until they learn and see modeled for them the way to be. The derech eretz (way we tread the earth) we expect at Yavneh is what was asked of you at the beginning of this article – what you value, what do regard as attributes of character, what helps build a caring and cared for community.
This year’s Keshet of Kavod middot – Pursuit of Peace, Courage, Kindness, Community Mindedness, Enthusiasm, and Understanding, all speak to the elements we value as character attributes in a caring community. They embody the best of our social emotional learning and they remind us each month, like our Keshet Krew does with skits, rainbow stairs, and fun birthday math equations, that being better than we were the day before is a skill to be practiced, celebrated, considered carefully, and always seen, just like that big bow in the sky.
Join us on Monday mornings for T’fillah and once a month, you’ll most certainly enjoy a Keshet of Kavod Assembly. Make sure to read the Rainbow Stairs as you head up to Kabbalat Shabbat or drop your student off. Celebrate with your child and when they bring home a Keshet of Kavod Creator Card and reflect with them as they Repair the Rainbow. That act of day-to-day teshuva has a lot of power, too.
What an incredible tradition we learn from. What amazing students we have. What a blessing it is to have a caring community committed to these valued character attributes.
#ThisIsY.
