There is a lot more to David’s life prior to taking the throne of Israel than most Christian churches teach their kids about. Usually they hear about David and Goliath; sometimes they may even hear about David and Bathsheba or about how his son Solomon was allowed to build the temple instead of David.
There’s a lot more to David’s life than is traditionally thought, however, and while serious Bible students know this, it’s a revelation to the average believer who only attends Christian church or Jewish/messianic shul services out of tradition rather than a passionate drive to know more about Adonai.
That’s the thing that’s rewarding about being in a teaching position with my messianic shul; I learn more than I ever have just studying for my own enrichment. It is a trip that requires no Rimowa luggage, per se, but it’s definitely a journey worth taking.
Every once in a while, I like to reward hard work, and in my bar/bat mitzvah class, that means taking a week off studies every few months, and allowing the kids to have some fun. It’s not anything that costs much or requires budgeting software, but it is a good investment.
As the kids get to know each other better as classmates through these times, they are more likely to work hard and study hard in the weeks where we are doing lessons. We’ve recently added a lot more variety to our curriculum, to challenge the kids and better-prepare them for their bar/bat mitzvah.
One thing we’ve done is to start to teach them the prayers and blessings that are part of the adult service. By learning these, they will be better prepared to take part in the service and understand why each element of the service is included.
Another new element is a more rigorous biblical Hebrew language program than they had received in younger grades; we are teaching them letters and vowel markings, and over the course of the year, would like to have them to a point where they can at least sound out Hebrew words on sight.
Of course, we’re still in the middle of a big character study on David as well, so they’re taking on a lot of material; believe me, these quarterly breaks are well-earned.
