The Gift of Tefillah with Mrs. Mushky Zaltzman

00:00 Speaker 1 Hi, I'm Zalman Schneer. Welcome to the Everything Chinuch Podcast, brought to you by the Menachem Education Foundation. Here, you'll find farbrengens, workshops, live interviews, and more, all to inspire you, the Chabad educator. We hope you enjoy today's episode.

00:20 Speaker 2 Good afternoon. Welcome. Let's get started right away. My name is Mushky Zaltzman. I teach seventh grade in Toronto. Um, I've been doing seventh grade for the past fifteen years, Baruch Hashem. And I wanted to mention that I am doing this workshop, the Ilan Nishmat, my father, and his twin brother, whose yahrtzeit, his fifteenth yahrtzeit is coming up, um, just in one month. So the Ilan Nishmat HaRav Shimon Ben Harav Nachum Shmuel David HaLevi and HaRav Yitzchak Ben Harav Nachum Shmuel David HaLevi. Um, my father was actually, uh, the Rav here at the Kenesset HaMikdash just four years ago. So, uh, I d-- I had this feeling that he would, he would want me to come here and present this workshop and, you know, give over this concept of tefillah and connecting to Hashem to other teachers to help inspire them. I love it. We're gonna make a weekend. Um, I was also asked to share the story, so I'm gonna share it. Rivka, thank you, Rivka, called me, and she asked me to give this workshop. I didn't think it was gonna work out, so I politely declined. And, uh, later that week, I was, uh, reading a letter of the Rebbe, and the Rebbe says, "I heard that you went to Kfar Chabad to give, uh, to join the farbrengen for Yitzchak's wife, and they asked you to speak, and you refused. This caused me a lot of pain." Um, and the Rebbe said, "Both for you and for them." So, I called Rivka

01:49 Speaker 2 back, and I said, "Okay. I guess the Rebbe wants me to be here to give this workshop, so here I am." And Be'ezrat Hashem, everybody who's here will be able to walk away with practical tips on how to inspire your students in their davening and in their relationship with Hashem. As was noted in the program guide, this is a tefillah workshop, but elements of the workshop can be used really for any mechaneches teaching any subject in her classroom. So on your table, it's like in the center of the table, but if you're spread out, you can just, like, bring it to you. There's a stack of cups and, um, there's tape. I'll just-- In one minute, I want you to try to build a secure, uh, tower, whatever that means to you. Just take one minute and try to build it. Okay. And then we . Tape. Use your tape. Use that. Go grab some. You must use tape. Use tape. It doesn't have a height requirement. It just has to be strong. Okay, we'll have twenty seconds left to build your tower. You have to tape it. We have to tape it? Yeah. Okay, we'll stop here. And I'm gonna ask you to, uh, try to experiment with your tower. So give it a little push and see if it falls. A little. A little push. And, you know, give it a little bit of a stronger push and see if it falls. And, uh, you know, try to really push it and see

04:43 Speaker 2 if it falls. So I'm just gonna point out this tower right here in the front. I know it's not taped, but imagine it was. It has like a double layer. The foundation of it is very strong. And, uh, because the foundation is strong, I'm assuming if it would be taped and I would give it a little push, it would probably, like, bend over and, you know, stand back on its head. So when it comes to our kids, our students, there's a lot of winds, there's a lot of pressures, there's a lot of things that are pushing them in all directions. It could be peer pressure, it could be social media, it could be anything in the world. And what's gonna help them stand strong? What's gonna help them stay solid from chdesha girls? So here we have our little tower, and the foundation of a tower is Yerushalayim. You could follow along in your-- if you're the type who likes to take notes, and there are more in the front. So here we have this little pyramid, and this-- the foundation of it is obviously Yerushalayim and a child's personal relationship with Hashem. When a child feels that they have a personal relationship with Hashem, and they could talk to Hashem, they're more likely to fall back on that with that-- with all the winds of the world and the pressures that are going on around them. So here we are, teachers, and some people might be thinking to themselves, "Well, you know, if a

06:02 Speaker 2 kid's not gonna get it at home, they're not gonna get it in school." We could sometimes get stuck in this rut of like I'm not gonna be the one to give my student the yiras shamayim she needs in life, or to overcome all the temptations she's gonna have, or the peer pressure or social media. And what if the rest of her family or her parents are very mo-- Like, we could go down this whole mind road that the yetzer hara sends us down. But in fact, that's not the case. And I just wanna sh-start off with a story because I wanna tell all of us that we do make a difference. Every single teacher here makes a difference in the lives of our students. And yes, no matter what type of house they come from, when they come to school, we have the power to instill within them yiras shamayim that's going to be so strong that no matter what happens around them, they'll be able to withstand those challenges. So this story happened a number of years ago. I was called by a Bnot Chabad head to do a Shabbaton, um, eh, for a certain high school, and I had taught those girls when they were in seventh grade. And, um, she asked me, "Do you have a grade preference?" You know, they had like a farbrengen for every grade. I said, "Okay, I'll do twelfth grade 'cause they're graduating, so twelfth grade is, like, a good, a good time." So I had this

07:12 Speaker 2 farbrengen. It was a beautiful farbrengen on a Friday night. It was in the winter. It was either Kislev or Tevet, so the farbrengen started really early, and it, you know, went till late in the night. And just as it was ending and winding down, I said to the girls, there was a Yom HaZikaron coming up. I said, "You know, in order to take something from this farbrengen, to walk away with something, I'm gonna ask everyone to think of one thing that they could do for the next two weeks, just two weeks. One thing that you're gonna do as a takeaway from the farbrengen." And we went around the room, and every single girl said something. Some smaller, some bigger, but everybody said something. There was one particular girl, and she didn't want, she didn't wanna take anything on. Now, this girl, I was happy that she had been at the farbrengen all this time. She was a very, very sweet girl, but a girl who was very challenged back then. And, you know, I was happy that she was there all that time. So I said, "Okay." You know, I said, "It could be simple, like ma'adan, negel vasser for two weeks," but she refused, and that was that. The next day, by the seudah Shabbos, I happened to be sitting next to her, and we got into a conversation. It turns out that she is not careful with cholov Yisrael. Now, she comes from a Lubavitch family. Of course, her parents keep cholov Yisrael.

08:15 Speaker 2 The-- Her mother only cooks cholov Yisrael. But she herself, with, you know, everything she was going through, was not. She would go to Starbucks, Coffee Bean, get herself, you know, coffee, cappuccinos, ice cream, chocolate, that was not cholov Yisrael. And I started to have a conversation with her. I, I said to her, I'm gonna call her Sarah for the sake of the story, that's not her name. I said to her, "You know, this is the source, this is the source of all the problems." I had a good relationship with her. I said, "You know what? Cholov Yisrael is so important." And I spoke to her for a very, very long time about cholov Yisrael and why it's so important. And she said, "I hear you, but I'm not ready to do it." And I said to her, "You know what? There's this candy store in LA," for those of you who might be familiar, it's called Munchies. "It has everything you want. It has ice cream, it has chocolate. They can even make you iced coffees." I said to her, "I'm gonna make you a bill of Munchies. Every day on your way home from school, you'll stop off and you'll get whatever you want, but it'll be cholov Yisrael." She said, "Nope. I don't want the bill of Munchies. I don't wanna go to Munchies. I wanna get what I wanna get." And, you know, the conversation went on for quite a while, but sh-she won in the end. You know, I said, "Everyone

09:12 Speaker 2 did something only for two weeks. Just two weeks." "No." "One week?" "No. No." All right. That was the end of that. The Shabbaton happened to have been a beautiful Shabbaton, but I obviously felt bad about this like, you know, one incident that I wasn't able to have that hashgachah on her that I would have. Shortly after, I was in Israel, actually, I was writing a letter to the Rebbe. I told the Rebbe about the Shabbaton, and I wrote to the Rebbe about this scenario and asked, like, you know, for help with this girl. I was not her teacher anymore. She was graduating. But, you know, obviously, we still care about our students. And many months passed. It was the end of the year, like Shavuot time, Sivan, and I was in school at the end of the day. I'm not usually, but that day I was. And I said to her, "I'm driving home. Do you want a ride?" She said, "Sure." And I drove her home. As she was getting out of the car, she turned to me and she said, "I want you to know I'm still keeping cholov Yisrael." And of course, I didn't believe her because you gotta know, like, her personality. So I smiled. And she said, "No, I promise. I've been keeping cholov Yisrael all this time." And then she put her backpack on, and she said, "But it's not a hachlata." And she walked off. A few years later, I was in Crown Heights, and I bumped into

10:14 Speaker 2 her at a l'chaim of a classmate of hers. And I saw her, and I was so happy to see her, and I said, "Oh my gosh, I just told my husband that story of that Shabbaton and the cholov Yisrael." She said to me, "I want you to know there's a lot of things I'm struggling with, but one thing I've never given up is cholov Yisrael." And, you know, just last year, it's been like maybe eight, nine years already, I called her up. I haven't been in touch with her all this time, but I called her up for something specific that I thought she'd be able to help me out with. And she said to me, "I have to tell you something. I'm not from-- I don't keep Shabbos, but one thing I never gave up was cholov Yisrael. I lived for a year in the Midwest, and there was no cholov Yisrael milk. I drank soy milk all year. And I was once in a Starbucks. I ordered a soy milk, a soy coffee, cappuccino, whatever it was. I tasted it. I said, 'There's something wrong.' I went to the counter, and they'd put milk in it, so I threw it in the garbage." She said, "I don't know what it is, but I just can't give up on it." And I'm sharing this story to tell all of us that we don't realize sometimes the impact that we have on our students. And we think like, you know, who am I? This one teacher,

11:13 Speaker 2 one year. They, they had all these years before them. They'll have all these years after them. There's so much going on in their lives. We do make a difference in the lives of our students. And, um, the Shalah Kodesh says, "Ze keli v'anu, elekei avi v'omenu," from Az Yashar. Ze keli, when a person recognizes ze keli, this is my Hashem, then the Shalah says, "Ani v'hu," it's me and Him. There's a personal relationship. When someone looks at Hashem like elekei avi, Hashem of my fathers, Hashey- Hashem is way up high in the heavens, way up high in the sky, then it's v'omenu. It's like Hashem is exalted. He's so far away. We wanna try to help our students cultivate that relationship with Hashem that's ze keli. This is my Hashem. I can turn to Hashem when I need to. I can ask Hashem to have hatslacha on this test that I'm having, to get the gold medal in the chiddan. Whatever a child wants in their life, ze keli, this is my Hashem. And, um, as the Rebbe says in the famous Sich of Shaar Hashuvah, that tefilah is not prayer. Tefilah is connection. Tefilah is connecting ourselves to Hashem. Tefilah is not about asking what, for what we want. Of course, it involves asking for what we need, but it's not only asking for what we need. The foundation of tefilah is connection. So when we're all teaching davening in our class, what we're trying to do is help inspire our students in their

12:41 Speaker 2 personal relationship and connection to Hashem. And here in the Sicha, the Rebbe says that there are times, certain times of the day that Hashem gives us in order to strengthen and renew that connection. So every time is a time of davening, that's a time of renewing that relationship with Hashem, of strengthening it. And you could follow along. All this is also in your booklet as well. The Hayom Yom of Chaf Gimel Iyar says... I tell my students, "Girls, if so much challenge in their Yiddishkeit, what's the first thing? Where are you gonna see it first?" Like, you know, they're having a hard time in their Yiddishkeit. Where are you gonna see it? Like, what's it gonna show up in? So a lot of them will say tzniyus, which is true as well. But here in Hayom Yom, the Rebbe says, "Reishes hayurida rachmana leitzlan hi hed'ar avoda betefilah." The beginning of one's downfall in Yiddishkeit starts, the Rebbe does not say by not davening. The Rebbe says by lack of avoda in davening. When one does not care about davening anymore, when davening just becomes rote, blah, blah, blah, da, da, da, da, da, da. I'm doing this because my teacher said, because I have to, because my mother's forcing me to. I'm not interested in the tefilah. And then the Rebbe continues in Hayom Yom, the rest of Yiddishkeit becomes cold. Everything else becomes cold, and everything falls from there, chas v'shalom. So I say, when we look at this Hayom Yom, I look

13:53 Speaker 2 at it, I like to look at it the flip side. If the beginning of one's downfall in Yiddishkeit is davening, then we can safely say that if we can give our children, our students, the tools to inspire them in their davening, we're not just giving them davening. We're giving them all of Yiddishkeit. We're giving them the ability to connect to Hashem and be inspired in their entire avodas Hashem. We could say reishes ha'aliyah, the beginning of one's elevation in all of their avodas Hashem starts off with davening. And I actually have a st- story with this as well. I hope you like stories 'cause I have quite a few for whatever we have time for. But, um, this happened in one of my first years of teaching. The principal said to me, "There's a certain student in your class," again, seventh grade, "who's really going through a challenging time." Not something you could pinpoint from the outside. Sometimes you know there's a family situation, there's a trauma, like you could say, "Oh, this is why this is happening." But in this girl's case, it was not something that was noticeable. The principal didn't have a clue. Why is this girl struggling so much? Why is she being so rebellious? And she said to me, "Listen, you're a new teacher. There have been mechaneches who've been teaching for many years who've been trying to work with this child and haven't gotten anywhere yet. So I just want you to let her be." I think she was

15:07 Speaker 2 scared I was a new teacher. She didn't want me to, like, mess anything up, you know? It's delicate. Yes, a child who's struggling, a child's in pain, it's delicate. So she said, "Just let her be. She's not gonna open up her siddur. She can't disturb. Just let her be. She rolls up her sleeve, just don't say anything." It was hard for me as a new teacher because you're so idealistic, right? We're gonna save every child. Every kid is gonna walk out of my class, right, the most s- the strongest, most Chasidishe girl. But of course, I was smart enough to listen to my principal, and I didn't say anything. I let this girl be for many months. School started, Elul. In Teves that year, my uncle, actually, whose name I mentioned in the beginning, had passed away in Elul. His yahrtzeit is Chaf Alef Elul coming up. And I wanted to do something l'ilui nishmas, but I wasn't ready to do it right in the beginning of the year. So it w-- His birthday was in Teves, and I started, uh, uh, incentive for davening in my class, l'ilui nishmas my uncle. And of course, when I started, I spoke about my uncle. I spoke about how he had a lung condition. It was hard for him, but when I was in Eretz Yisrael in seminary, I would hear how he davened word for word, even though, like, he had to keep on pausing, and you know, how much attention he paid to davening. And

16:07 Speaker 2 I explained the incentive, how it was gonna work with points and prizes, and what they were gonna get for davening. And that day, for the first time from Elul, and it was Teves, this girl opened up her siddur. I was very surprised, but of course, I didn't say anything. And you know, I was just, you know, I was watching, and she, she stood up for Shemoneh Esrei, and she davened the whole davening. I can't say she had the most unbelievable davening I've ever seen, but the fact that she opened her siddur was just so huge. And she came to me after davening, and she said, "I'm gonna daven for your uncle." Now, what-- My uncle had already passed away, but l'ilui nishmas. And the next day she davened, and the next day she davened, and the next day she davened. Now, I'm not gonna tell you that she started to daven, and she became the most perfect girl. There was a lot of factors involved. Her parents worked very hard. Other teachers worked very hard. The Menuchat Bat head was very close to her. But I can tell you that the day she started davening, she became open. She became open to hearing from the other teachers. She became open to, like, listening to what the Menuchat Bat head, who was very close and worked very hard on her, was telling her. She became a different girl. She actually won the davening award the next year in school. And her mother called me that summer

17:12 Speaker 2 after eighth grade, 'cause sh- she was my cousin in seventh grade, so it was a whole year and a half later. Her mother called. She said, "I'm calling to tell you my daughter won the best camper, not of her bunk, of the whole camp. And I know how much this means to you, so I just want to let you know." And you know, I, I was so emotional because I was thinking about this girl. She was such an-- She w-- She seemed like such an angry girl. She seemed like nothing could get to her. But something about starting to daven, and even though her davening in the beginning did not involve any spec- special chayas and excitement, that davening is what pulled her in. This girl is married today, Baruch Hashem, with kids, and is actually a teacher. I called her if I asked her for permission to say this story. And she's a, she's a totally different person. So let's not underestimate the aliyah, the aliyah that someone can have when we can give them that personalization of their connection to Hashem that comes with davening. So of course, the biggest question and the reason everybody's here is how. Oh, just one more thing. Um, one last thing just about davening before we go in. The Alter Rebbe compares davening to spinal cord. According to the Alter Rebbe, davening is actually not one of the two hundred and forty-eight positive mitzvot. It's of course achi of, according to Alter Rebbe, according to-- It's a

18:23 Speaker 2 mitzvah derabanan. However The Alter Rebbe says, just like a spinal cord, it's not one of the two hundred and forty-eight limbs, but it is what gives life to all of the limbs. It's what gives movement to the whole body. With-- If the spinal cord is broken, a person is paralyzed. We could look at davening the same way. If a person is doing tirum mitzvot, but they're missing davening, they're missing that relationship, it's like their tirum mitzvot, the Rebbe uses the word, is like dead. It's like they're not connected. It's like paralyzed. They're missing the life to their Yiddishkeit. They're missing the most central part of life, and that's what the Alter Rebbe compares davening to. So we understand now that davening is so important, and giving our students that love for davening, that connection to Hashem, to inspire them in that way, is the most important tool we can give them. And now we're gonna ask ourselves how. How can I inspire my students? How can I motivate them? How can I help them, train them, model for them, to give them this personal relationship with Hashem? So we have-- I try to make it easy, so I try to make like a Rosh Yeshiva, four Ps. These four Ps, as you can tell, are four pillars, because, uh, when I think about them, they're like what's holding the davening up. And, and again, I'm talking about children now, right? This is for elementary school and junior high. This davening is helping to hold them

19:42 Speaker 2 up, and I truly believe that all four are very important. If one is missing, it's a weakness. So let's go through them, and let's understand what they are. Number one, prioritize. Prioritize. It seems so simple, like duh. So sometimes we take things for granted, but we can give our students subtle cues, and they pick them up. So let's-- we're gonna try to understand how we can show our students that davening is so important to us. Of course, we care about davening. That's why we're here. But how can we show that to our students? So what does priority mean? Priority, if you look up the definition, means it is the most important thing that I have to do or deal with right now. When my students are davening, they know this is the most important thing happening right now. So, for example, imagine one of your students worked really, really hard on a project for, like, a month, and she came up to the class to present it. Every teacher would give that child full attention. They wouldn't be grading papers, grading their notes, cutting up what they need for the next activity, fixing up the bulletin board while this girl is doing her presentation, because they want to show the girl that this presentation is so important. So the first and most important thing we have to know about prioritizing davening is that we have to be totally present, again, P, in the child's davening. Now, every teacher, depending on the grade level, what does

21:10 Speaker 2 present mean? It means walking up and down the aisles. It means tapping a kid's desk and telling her beautiful. In younger grades, maybe it means giving them tickets or gems. It means I am present in the davening. I don't daven with my students. I know there are different opinions. I think girls daven better when they are being watched, and they know the teacher, again, is present in their davening. But I still will sing with them, right? To keep the davening, to give that energy. Presence. Presence. Walk around. Make your presence. Show that right now it's davening and nothing else. Not walking out of the room, not preparing for the next activity, not grading, whatever it is. Secondly, um, you know, this is so subtle, but kids pick up every cue. So sometimes you'll hear, "Okay, we're gonna finish davening quietly because we have this program that's happening at ten o'clock, so we have to finish davening quietly." The message the kids get is what's happening next is more important than the davening. How about, "We're going on a grad trip, so everyone could daven at home. We're leaving at nine o'clock right when school starts. Daven at home." I do things with my students all the time, like, "Can we daven at home?" Absolutely not. Davening's the most important thing. We're gonna start off our day. The trip could get pushed off an hour, but davening can't get pushed off. Davening can't be done quietly, quickly. You know, we're just gonna finish this up. The

22:30 Speaker 2 message we're giving our students is that is more important than davening. No, davening is-- "Could I daven at home and take the test? To, uh, you know, I missed a test. Could I daven at--" No, no, you'll daven-- You'll miss Chumash class, but you won't miss davening. And a student understands and recognizes, "Whoa, davening is important. I can't just do it at home. I can't just finish it up quietly. I can't just, you know, skip it. This is the most important thing." Also, every teacher chooses in her classroom where they're gonna put that emphasis, and there's a lot of things we want to put emphasis on that are all very important. You know, Derech Eretz and Middot and Avas Hatorah and academics, and they're all important. But davening has to be equal, if not more, to all those things. So the rewards, and we're talking about prizes a little later, but just to understand the type of drama we make for everything else, we're gonna make for davening, and if not more. The bulletin board, the honor roll, a call to the parents about how the child's davening. In the newsletter, the names of the kids who are davening nicely. Davening is all around them. They're hearing it. They're feeling it. Davening is so important in this classroom. Davening is so important in this school. So that's for prioritize. Let's make a big deal out of davening. Let's show our students that davening is the most important thing. Now prepare. So, oh, on the bottom

23:49 Speaker 2 of your handout, it just-- You could turn to, you know, two or three people sitting next to you. Take a moment to answer this question on the bottom of the page. What can I do in my classroom to make davening a priority? So just literally just a minute, uh, network with the teacher next to you how you can make davening a priority in your classroom, how you could show your students how important it is. And when you're done, I'm gonna ask you to read the story on the next page that says, "The Cab Driver," on page six. So figure out something of how you could prioritize davening in your classroom and read that story together. I'm gonna take questions at the end just 'cause I don't want to run late, but right now I'd like you to come up to. Because we're short on time, I'm gonna ask you, if you didn't start the story now, please start it now. You can continue to speak to other teachers after. Here, do you want a handout?

25:16 Speaker 3 Do you want a handout?

25:18 Speaker 2 I'm recording it for my-

25:19 Speaker 3 Have your mom record? She's walking in the background.

25:34 Speaker 2 She's listening. She's I'm recording it to send to her, but I'm not recording it, uh-

25:40 Speaker 3 Sorry, what's that?

25:41 Speaker 2 I'm recording it to send to her, but I'm not recording it, uh, to give. I'm gonna do questions after just because I, I wanna, I wanna make sure we cover everything, and we are a little bit tight. Sh-- Okay, raise your hand if you're done this story. All right, I'll give another minute.

27:09 Speaker 3 I want to start. I'm like, I have so much to say, and we've started late. So if I have time, I'll do questions after.

27:16 Speaker 2 Okay. Shh. I'm gonna ask you now to just give your attention forward. Raise your hand if you got through the story.

27:24 Speaker 3 Half.

27:25 Speaker 2 Oh, only half of it. Okay. I'm so sorry that I'm stopping you early. I encourage you to end off this story. A story about a person who was in a rush to, to catch a plane, and, uh, the person next to him, uh, was davening with so much kavana, but of course, he couldn't concentrate 'cause he had to go catch his flight, right? And turns out the guy who was standing next to him, like, crying and davening with so much kavana was his taxi driver, who had to be in the same exact place at the same exact time, right? But he was just able to focus. So that's the story in short. So imagine I was gonna ask you, if you were to start davening right now after reading that story, raise your hand if your davening would have a little bit more focus and concentration in it. Okay. The answer is probably yes, right? 'Cause you just, not like I said it in thirty seconds, but, like, you took the time, you read this. That inspired you. That was like, "Wow, you know, let me focus on my davening." Preparing for davening is an crucial factor for davening. This is, like, one of the foundations of Chasidus, that there's preparation for davening. Now, of course, we're not talking about big Chasidim who are meditating, but even little kids, even five, six, seven-year-olds need preparation for davening. There needs to be something that's gonna inspire them to come into davening with the right frame of

28:33 Speaker 2 mind. I sometimes, you know, I'm not judging any teacher, but walk down the hallway, like thirty seconds into school starting, and you already hear Harini Makavel. How is it possible? The kids are, like, just put off their backpacks. They're just getting in. They're still thinking about how they almost missed the bus, and here we're starting to daven, right? So that preparation time. Now, everyone has a different setup in their school. How much time is that preparation gonna be? Of course, the more, the better. But if you don't have the time, figure out, and we're gonna now discuss what are options for preparation. How to maximize that time, that what you're gonna do in those five, ten, fifteen minutes are going to inspire and encourage and give your students what they need to be able to make the most of their davening. So what I think is the most powerful preparation of davening and good for all age levels is, uh, Chasidisha stories. So here we go.

29:29 Speaker 3 I always tell my kids stories about the Rebbe. The Rebbe told us once in Yichedis, here is a, a directive from the Rebbe, um, that, uh, sipurei tzadikim and sipurei chasidim and sipurei tzadikim are a segula for yiras shamayim. And he told me to tell it to my yingela in the mor- in the morning. So every year, every year, every, every day, I do, I tell the first thing after we do roll, and we give tzedakah, before we start davening, I tell them, "Tati learn Chasidus in the morning. We're gonna learn Chasidus Shamayis in the morning." And every day they hear, they hear. Came to the point that I have kids that come to school late, they cry coming into the class because they missed their story. So during, like, recess, I call them over. I don't want them to miss it . So that's another thing that the Rebbe told me.

30:25 Speaker 2 So that was just so short. Mrs. Arnold's from LA. I don't know if you know her. A direct, a directive from the Rebbe. Stories give yiras shamayim. And, um, there's a story of a person by the name of Rabbi Kaufman from Detroit. He's not a Baba Chachasid. He came to the Rebbe for a bracha for children. I'm not gonna go through the details of the story because the rest of the story is not so important of, you know, what his, how to get that bracha. But this part of the story, the Rebbe said to him, he was a teacher, he was a school teacher, and the Rebbe said, "Do you tell your students stories?" And he said, "No." And the Rebbe said, "Why not?" And he said, "It's bittel Torah." And the Rebbe looked at him, and the Rebbe said, "Stories are Torah." Stories are ‹taira›. If there's one thing that people are gonna leave with today, if it's gonna be, "I'm going to say a Hasidisha story to my students every single day," ‹dayenu›. Of course, it would be better if there was more, but that in itself will give so much to your students in their ‹yiras Shamayim›, and for sure in preparing them for davening. How do you get resources when you have- Chabad.org has amazing, Ascent has. But also, you know, I started with my sister a WhatsApp group 'cause I had this conversation with her, and she said, "Okay, because of you, I'm starting to say stories every day, but

31:37 Speaker 2 I can't find them." So we started-- I have WhatsApp with her 'cause I talk to her all the time, right? But the stories get lost, so she started a group. It's called Stories. Every time she finds a story or I find a story, we quickly send it to the group, and then we have, like, what to work off of. A lot of people have smart boards in their classroom. You could show a Gem my Encounter, which is beautiful. The kids love that. They'll ask you for it every day. There's something about saying a story. If you do research, you know, there's a connection when you say a story. So you could do both, you know. It's also beautiful to see a story from the person who said it. But there is s- there's so many resources. My sister told me she was in the bookstore, Hayteves, and she saw one of my students, and she said to my sister, "Could you show me the book that, you know, Ms. Reichick back then says her stories from?" And she laughed. I was like, "You know, there's not one book." But it's everywhere. Online, you could, there, Chabad.org has, like, a wealth of stories. Start there. Ascent.com has a lot, a lot of stories. Um- The stories don't have to be specifically Machaneim? Machaneim stories. I, I-- If you're not a davening teacher, any time of the day story is good. But a story for ‹hachana› for davening, to prepare, to inspire their students. So it's- The

32:40 Speaker 2 stories are about davening. The stories are not specifically about davening. I can't find three hundred stories about davening. Any Hasidisha story gives ‹yiras Shamayim›. When we instill ‹yiras Shamayim› in our students, we will be able to see in them a better davening. I was gonna say this then, but I'll say it now. I asked my students at some point of the year, I said to them, "Girls, sometimes people call me and they say, you know, 'What do you do to encourage your students to daven, to inspire them to daven?' What would you say? What inspires you to daven?" They say, "Oh, the prizes. Tell them to get really good prizes." So then at the end, at the end of the year, this one girl writes me a note. "You know, thank you for the answer. I just want to tell you, I daven because of your stories, not because of the prizes." Aw. So, you know, maybe not. And, and the rest of them, yeah, they're saying the prizes, but if the prizes don't come with the preparation, with the stories, and with everything else we're gonna discuss, and with prioritizing davening, then the prizes are not gonna work. So the preparation for davening and those stories are really, really important. So here we have a ‹Hayom Yom›, and you have it quoted fully, actually, in your booklet. Um, we are-- Sorry. The Rebbe Rashab says, "Part of Yetzias Mitzrayim of Hasidism is the mitzvah to say the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim." And what does

33:45 Speaker 2 this mean in Hasidism? Saying Hasidisha stories. To listen, to hear, to internalize Hasidisha stories. And one should realize that every story, and this is in the words of the Rebbe Rashab, what does every story do to the listener? Every story refines our character. It produces a ‹chayis pnimi›, an inner ‹chayis› in doing a ‹hider mitzvah›, and it sensitizes us to ‹deher›, the pleasant ways of Hasidism. Now, what, what more do we want than to instill in our students this ‹chayis pnimi›, to give our students the good character, a ‹midah toiva›, to help them ‹deher› the beautiful ways of Hasidism? The Rebbe Rashab says we can accomplish all of this with a Hasidisha story. So let's not take for granted what a story does. And again, I'm gonna tell you a story about saying stories. Um, this story happened a few years ago. It was Hanukkah, and of course, you know, students all want something different on Hanukkah. Who wants to just learn Chumash on Hanukkah? So I did an activity in my class. I, like, set up the class a little different, and I brought treats with a dreidel. And I made nun, gimmel, hei, and shin each stands for something else. Whatever you got, you had to share with the class depending on what you landed on. So for example, like, nun was like a, a, a neis or Hashgacha Protis that you saw. And gimmel, I'm not gonna go through it all now, but gimmel was a goal that you achieved or accomplishment

35:07 Speaker 2 you're proud of to share with the rest of the class. Very simple game. Nothing too, you know, but a, a nice connecting opportunity. And there was one particular girl, she gets a gimmel, and she stands up, and she starts to cry. Now, it was totally not this, like, emotional. It was like a fun Hanukkah experience, and, like, everybody was, like, looking at her. And she says, "You know, a lot of you know that I have a sister who's not frum. And, um, you know, this past summer I was, you know, at home so much, and she used to, like, offer me to, you know, go on her tablet on Shabbos, and I would, I would do it. And, you know, then she started sharing the food she bought from, you know, McDonald's or whatever, and I would eat it." And she said, "But then I came to school, and I would hear all these stories, uh, about, you know, the importance." And, you know, the, the, the truth is, I, I do remember saying a story about kashrus, and anyone who wants, I could tell you after what the story was. It's a story that my teacher said in fifth grade, and it left such an impression on me that when I became a teacher, I went to search for the story. It's called The Tainted Soup on Chabad.org. And I shared it with the class. This kid heard the story, 'cause that's just one of a million stories. When I said that story to

36:09 Speaker 2 the class, I saw this girl fidgeting in her seat, and I thought it's because she has a sister who's not frum. So, you know, it, like, it brings up an uncomfortable, uh, feeling that her sister's eating non-kosher, and here we're talking about the importance of kashrus and what kashrus does for you. And, uh, she said to the class, "Well, I heard all these stories and, you know, all these workshops, and it really inspired me, and I stopped everything." And, you know, for a seventh grader to share that, sh- and she was actually cr- she was crying saying this. And I'm thinking to myself, "All I did was share a story. A story. Who doesn't share a story?" And here's this kid whose life changed from a story. Actually, once bumped into this student, and she says to me, "Could you remind me the story you said that made me stop listening to non-Jewish music?" And I'm like, "No, I actually don't remember. But if you remember, please let me know," right? Because, and of course, let's be realistic. Not every kid is, like, listening to a story and changing their lives. But we cannot imagine the impact of a Hasidisha story is what the Rebbe Rashab is telling us in Hayom Yom. So that's what I would say. The first and foremost, if you only have five minutes in the morning, use it to say a Hasidisha story. But there are other ways, there are other important factors of, um, there are other important factors

37:19 Speaker 2 of preparation of davening. And do I have a brave volunteer? Oh, come on. So many teachers. Please, come up. Yeah, that's the next, that's the next page. Oh, we're missing it. That's the next thing we're talking about in our preparation. It's right here on page nine. You'll see it in the Rebbe's words. Um, do I have a volunteer? Did you want to volunteer? No, I don't have, I don't have a question. I, I, Mushka, thank you. Thank you. You can always rely on a good friend. Okay, could you come up and read this? Yeah. Thank you, guys. They're proof of what Chassidishe stories could accomplish. For, yeah.

38:08 Speaker 4 This one?

38:08 Speaker 2 Yeah, go.

38:10 Speaker 4 They don't know what it looks like, so it's going to be embarrassing. Okay. Gee-- Yeah? "Geen word is goneng om droe te bedank vir wat jy vir my gedoen het. Jy het my..." Yeah, keep going. "Jy het ek weet nie hoe ek jou sal vergeet." I will dankie see you. Thank you.

38:32 Speaker 2 I'll stop you because I know you're getting embarrassed. Uh, thank you so much. Thank you for being our brave volunteer. Do I have another volunteer? This time you have to read English. Mushki, are you volunteering yourself? Thank you so much. I can always rely on good friends to stand up in the time of need. Mushki, come up, yeah. Thank you. Okay. So Nechama Shayndel very bravely just read, um, uh, something in Afrikaans. Now, she had no clue what she was saying, obviously, so it sounds like, "Jeeng, yeeng, yeeng, yeeng, yeeng." Nothing wrong with you, okay? Now come up here, Mushki, and just read here in the microphone what it says, number one.

39:08 Speaker 4 "No words are enough to thank you for what you have done for me. You saved my life. I don't know how I will ever repay you. Nothing I will do is enough to say thank you. I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am forever indebted to you. Thank you."

39:20 Speaker 2 Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. So I, I give this to my students. It actually has a few examples, and I send girls out, and they do it, right? Uh, as an introduction to the beard tefillah in the beginning of the year. And what I try telling them, you know, there's ones about, you know, I can't thank you enough, and one about I'm so sad for a tragedy that happened, right? And the person who's reading it in a foreign language has no clue what they're saying, is obviously, like, missing the cues of how to say it, right? There's no feeling in what they're saying. And of course, we know that beard tefillah is such a, a critical factor in, uh, the davening experience. But I just want to emphasize that a lot of times I go to workshops, and people say, "If there's no beard tefillah, the kids can't daven. You won't see it." And that's not true. There are so many parts. The tzniut is the kind of a kid knowing, "I am connecting to Hashem in this moment, and we're going to do something a, a little after, even for little kids." Is-- That in itself is a, a, a kavana for them to have in davening. And we're going to go through some thoughts, and you have it in front of you that we're going to go through a little later, of what students can have. So of course, beard tefillah is an important factor, but we should not think that

40:24 Speaker 2 if my students know every single word of davening, what it means, then they can daven well. And if they won't, then I cannot expect to see them daven. I could inspire them. I could tell them a Chassidishe story. I could show them how important davening is. I could do the rest of the things we're about to talk about, and that can help my students really feel connected to Hashem while they're davening. So here in the Rebbe's words, and we don't have time, I'm not going to go through, um, on your paper on page nine. I'm not going to go through it in detail, but the, the Rebbe here is bringing a, a story from a Blavinsky of a, a Dishov that while saying Birkat Hashachar, uh, he was dancing, right? And someone asked him, "What are you doing?" And he said, "I said, 'Shelayah sani gai.'" And just the thought that it could have been different, right? If I'm making, making a bracha that I'm a Yid, then it could have been otherwise. That in itself was like, you know, made me so happy. And, and in the next paragraph, the Rebbe brings from, uh, is another sicha. The Rebbe says that when a Yid wakes up, and he goes through these eighteen, twenty brachos, and he's actually just thinking the simple meaning. Like, you know, "Hashem gave me what I need," in every single one of those brachos. That in itself is enough to make a person happy. So what the Rebbe's saying, and

41:27 Speaker 2 the person says, "You know, I can't be happy. What do I have in my life?" Just think about the brachos you're saying in the morning. So the Rebbe's telling us that when we understand the simple, basic translation of davening, that is a, is a reason for joy. We have so much to be thankful for and grateful for. So depending on your grade level, right, uh, and when I taught them as mechanech, they had songs for, you know, translation of davening. Sometimes teachers do one-liners. I know Mrs. Lieber's doing something tomorrow, where she's going to show how to implement, you know, to help our students understand the translation of what they're saying. And I want you to understand that is a factor, and it is an important factor, but it's not the only factor. So if you have time to make that part of your preparation, one tefillah a day, a part of a tefillah a day, I'm lucky I have that time, right? Because I create my own schedule as such. That's a very beautiful thing. If you don't have time to do it as a preparation for davening, and it can be a different s-subject some time in the day, and remind the students of it before davening, that is a beautiful thing as well. Um, on the bottom of page nine, it says, "What can I do in my classroom to properly prepare my students?" Um, you could, you could do it yourself. I'm not going to ask you to go to someone

42:30 Speaker 2 next to you because we don't have time. But I just want to take a moment. This paper, this colored sheet, if you don't have it, there's a few more in the front. Um, these are some thoughts I put together with the help of my husband, and I should have thanked him before doing this workshop for allowing me to come and taking care of all the kids who are, uh, at home. But, um, this is the-- Sections one and three are based on Perek Chamala. If we know the Rebbe would say to learn Perek Chamala before davening, it's not just about memorizing. It's about, right, having those thoughts in mind. The middle one is based on off of, uh, the next thing we're about to do, about personalizing davening. But just these thoughts, if you teach a younger grade, have this in your classroom and make it small that the girls could put it in their chitas, right? Imagine every day you just went through one of these. I'm standing in front of Hashem, the creator of the world. Hashem knows everything I think, speak, or do. Hashem is so great, the existence of the world is in His hands. Hashem runs the world. Nothing can happen unless Hashem wants. I feel small and humbled in front of others, especially as I stand in front of Hashem, right? If, if we could even just take one a day and discuss that with our students, that will put them in a, a proper mindset for davening as

43:34 Speaker 2 well. So what I did with my students one year is actually, um, I, I gave them this list, and then they, like, had a canvas, and they picked one that talked to them. And we, uh, paint-- they painted them, and we put it on the wall. It's a little... I know thoughts are spelled wrong, but, you know, one of the students did that, and I did not want to, uh, offend her, so we still hung it up. It's 'cause this is not an English lecture. But, um, every student picked what talks to them and, you know, this was in the front of the classroom. When they would daven, they were able to look at it. They were able to think about that. Uh, you know, at least if their minds were wandering during davening, they had something good to look at. Um, I also wrote a song that some students really connect to, and some years they say, "You know, can we sing the song before davening?" So whatever it's gonna be, there should be a hanah. Now, I do have the song. I'm gonna save it till the end. I'll play it. It's in your booklet if you're looking at your booklet. Of course. Um, and so now we're gonna move on to the next pillar. But coming from that, even though we don't have time to answer the question on the bottom of the page, just take a moment to think about, what is something that I'm gonna do? And I'm saying, if

44:37 Speaker 2 you only have time for one thing, pick a story, if you're asking me my opinion. Um, pillar number three, personalize. Personalize. Here, the Hayyim says, "In learning," and again, I'm just gonna paraphrase just the, the last part. "In learning Torah, a Yid is like his relationship with Hashem as a student to a teacher, and in davening, it's like a child to his father." This idea of the personal relationship with Hashem, what we said in the beginning of Zekheili, "This is my Hashem." Helping students cultivate that personal relationship with Hashem is really what davening is all about. Now, this pillar is gonna happen both during davening or just throughout the day as a teacher. But have-- Focusing on this throughout the day is going to help my students during davening as well. And what do I mean by that? So remember I told you the story of the girl who said, you know, she wasn't davening a whole year, but then when I said that thing for my uncle, she started to daven, right? All of a sudden, she-- it was personal to her. She felt a reason to daven. She felt, like, connected. We want our students to feel connected to Hashem. We want them to be able to find something that connects them to that davening. So, um, first and foremost, I would say Hashgacha Protis. This is one of the foundations that's, that Ba'al Shem Tov started. Seeing Hashgacha Protis. We as teachers have the opportunity to literally show our students Hashgacha Protis

45:57 Speaker 2 in all parts of the day, to point out to them Hashgacha Protis. Now, different people have opinions of whether to share personal stories with your students. I, for one, like to do it 'cause, you know, it just shows a human side to teacher. But if you're not that type, and if you are that type, share with your students Hashgacha Protis, big or small. That trains them how to look for Hashgacha Protis. And if you're not that type, anything that happens in the day that could stand out as Hashgacha Protis, show them, "Oh, we were about to do this, but we decided to do that instead, and now this is happening," right? Show them how that's Hashgacha Protis. "Oh, it's a good thing you didn't miss today because we're having this grand activity. Baruch Hashem, your trip is only next week," right? Show them how Hashem is running the world, and train them to look for Hashgacha Protis. And I give my students, like, this, you know, assignment to find Hashgacha Protis. In younger grades, give out, like, I don't know, these little Hashgacha Protis cards when they find a Hashgacha Protis. Really, m-- like, train your students that when they look at the world, they're seeing those Hashgacha Protis. Um, and I just lost my train of thought of what I was gonna say about Ha-Hashgacha Protis. Um, but just try-- Oh, yeah, I, I tell my students to find Hashgacha Protis, and I say, "Girls, I'm gonna give you two weeks. I want you

47:07 Speaker 2 to find Hashgacha Protis. Don't tell me a story you read in a book that Hashgacha Protis. Don't tell me a story you heard in camp from your counselor Hashgacha Protis. For the next two weeks, I want you to look out in your life, in your own life, and find something that's gonna be Hashgacha Protis." And then every morning, it's like, "Okay, did anyone find Hashgacha Protis yet?" And you know, you have the first two brave girls who do, and that, like, helps teach the other girls, like, "Oh, that's Hashgacha Protis. Oh, that counts?" "Yeah, of course, that counts," right? So when we're showing the girls, like, every single thing in this world is Hashem, then we're helping personalize their relationship with Hashem. Um, model to the students talking to Hashem. Teach them how to talk to Hashem both in and out of davening, right? "Girl, what's something personal you want to ask Hashem today?" "Oh, we're having a test." "Make sure today when you daven, right, to ask Hashem that you're going to do well on your test." And these kids are like, "Oh, I can ask Hashem that I'll do well on my test," right? You're in a f-- or, uh, a fight with a friend, someone telling you, "Right, so let's ask Hashem that you should be able to make up," right? They don't think. They think, like, I just have to ask Hashem if someone's very sick or, or Mashiach should come. But, like, in my life, Zekheili. You know, I, I

48:06 Speaker 2 taught my students a story of one day how I came home. I was at, I was, I was back in school after a baby, and I was exhausted. I had forty-five minutes before my next kid came home, and I, like, went into bed, and all of a sudden, my baby started crying. And I just closed my eyes and said, "Hashem, please make my baby fall asleep." And my baby fell asleep. And you could think that's the most ridiculous story, but it's actually, it was, to me, it was like, "Oh, my gosh, Hashem heard my prayer. Hashem heard my tefillah." It's like, really? The baby fell asleep. And you know, when I say a simple story like that, it trains them. Like, I could talk to Hashem. And again, this is both within davening time and just throughout the day, thanking Hashem. Baruch Hashem. Baruch Hashem. Training kids to say Baruch Hashem by saying Baruch Hashem ourselves. Thank you, Hashem. Oh, someone's sister is engaged. Wow, Baruch Hashem, what a beautiful moment of, "I'm sure you were davening. That's so special." Right? Hashem answered your tefillah, making them realize Hashem made this good thing happen. Students are used to like, "Well, Hashem never listens to me. Look at that person. I was davening for them, and they passed away." I say to them, I say, "How many times did you ask Hashem for something and Hashem did listen?" Right? How many things can you think of in your life that Hashem is giving you today? So,

49:13 Speaker 2 and, and not to put aside when there's a tragedy, of course, we have to deal it, and we have to address that with the student. But thank you, Hashem, teaching students to find things in their life to thank Hashem for. So I would do a journal, and I'd, depending on the year, I didn't always do it a full year, but I think it's a v-very important tool before davening. And I would see how some girls, like, they, they took it very, very seriously. I'd say, "Write in this journal one thing you're gonna thank Hashem for today and one thing you want to ask Hashem for today." And there's things we want to ask Hashem for every day, like bring Mashiach. But I want you to think of something specific for today that's not going to be the same as what you wrote yesterday and what you're going to write tomorrow, right? And something specific to thank Hashem for today. And that way, we could train our students. I could ask Hashem for what I need, and let me find things to thank Hashem for. It's so important to thank Hashem. You know, last, uh, no, this is already two years ago, I had a relative who was unwell. We started something on a family chat. It was like, e-every day someone said a Torah, and then every ha- one had a portion of Tehillim to say, and then you gave tzedakah, so we had tzedakah. And then Baruch Hashem, the person went through, like, the,

50:10 Speaker 2 the surgery or whatever it was, and they were fine. And they were going to stop it. And I remember saying, "How about we continue?" It was in the summer. He said, "Let's continue it to Rosh Hashanah to thank Hashem." Right? Hashem, we need a refuah. Hashem, quick, quick, quick. It's like all the Tehillim in the world. And like, thank you, Hashem. Thank you, Hashem. It is such an important tool. So I do this in my class, but you could do this in, like, really any way. Oh, here's the quote we said. I have this bulletin board, right? Actually, it's not in the classroom. We did it, uh, in the, in the lounge room. It says, "Thank you, Hashem." Right? You could go up. You could write something on the bulletin board that you're thankful to Hashem for, that you want to thank Hashem for. I don't know if you see in the top right corner, there's, like, this, the, this craft I did. Got it from my sister. She had... Actually, Mushki made these, right? Mushki, very talented Mushki, uh, created these, uh, films that say, "Ma d'ani, thank you, Hashem." And, you know, when you paint that on the canvas, that came out, right? And they took it home. And, like, w-we're looking at this, we're remembering that we owe our entire life to Hashem. H- Um, I wanna say a story, but I'm going to just move on to the last pillar, and if we have time, I'm going to share the story

51:14 Speaker 2 after. I just wanna make sure we do everything we need to do. So, uh, finally, prizes. Prizes. You think, like, okay, I get, like, prizes, you know? Well, who needs prizes? I teach seventh grade. They should, they should be above prizes at that age. Come on. No, prizes are so important. I told you, ask my students, "What gets you to daven?" They said, "Prizes." And I'm sure it's not only the prizes, but in their minds, the prize is so important. Some people say, "Oh, today's day and age teaches you that prizes and, you know, we shouldn't say do this for this," 'cause what if they don't have the prize, and then they're gonna stop davening? There's a lot I have to say about that that we don't have the time for right now. But for starters, train them to daven nicely for a year for the prize. That in itself, Baruch Hashem, they daven nicely for one year. Hopefully, they'll continue with that after. We know this from the Rambam. The Rambam says, right, "Learn, and I'll give you a nut." And then as they grow older, uh, it gets to better things like clothing and money. But we have this in the Kol Hakenafah Hadraha. What other guidance do we need than the Frieda Grabbe himself? Whoop. Whoops. Oh, where is it? Oh, here in the Kol Hakenafah Hadraha. You have the full thing, or more of it, on page eleven. But, um, this is just one small quote. And again, I'm just gonna,

52:22 Speaker 2 uh, translate it in English. The Frieda Grabbe says that, "Hashem implanted in us the nature to enjoy praise and to yearn for reward, both moral and material, for good behavior." This is something that Hashem gave to a human being. A human being wants to be rewarded. They want to be acknowledged. With-- And the Rebbe doesn't say only a compliment. Material prizes for good behavior. And in, in the next paragraph, the Frieda Grabbe says, "Praise and compliments uplift a student, bringing him out of his present situation to a higher plateau, and paying off with good rewards and moti-motivates and invigorates the student to ascend from level to level in both his learning and behavior." So let's not take for granted giving prizes to students. Now, what you're gonna do, how you're gonna do it, think about your age level. Are you gonna do tickets? Are you gonna do a prize store? Are you g-- Are you gonna let the students mark themselves? Are you gonna mark them? There are so many, like, you know, uh, places you could go with this, so many different ways you could, uh, show your students that you recognize and acknowledge their davening. Um, I just, on the last page, printed for you, definitely not something you have to follow, but just some people have, like, you know, they need. So just on the back of the booklet, this is just a, a, a checklist that I use. Um, and I, I don't use this the whole year, actually. I shift

53:37 Speaker 2 up my, my prize systems because, like, the kids need new things, right? So there's, like, the point system, and if you get a certain average, then you get a prize, and then I change it to, like, they mark themselves for a little bit, and then I go back to marking them, and prize stores and different things just to, it gets exciting. And yeah, there are those girls in the beginning of the month, they're like, "What's the prize this month?" Right? "I need to know." And I learn. I learned the hard way. I say, "Oh, it's a surprise." Right? So they'll only find out at the end. Um, and of course, students who are challenged, you, you make different systems for different kids. It's, there's, everything's available. But don't miss out this important pillar of prizes. It is so critical. And to the kids, it's what they think is the most important. Um, and this, uh, okay, like, what I pointed out here are things that I've seen written by the Rebbe or things that I've heard, you know, by watching a gem video of what the Rebbe says is important. Here we have tzedakah before Shacharit. We have kibud halachas of davening. Hear yourself daven, right? You have those kids murmuring to themselves, "I davened the whole davening." Right? You have to hear yourself davening, which means your lips have to be moving. And I, I make two levels for looking inside the siddur, right? Eighty percent of the time and ninety percent of the

54:34 Speaker 2 time, because, you know, some students really can't look in that much time. So I, I want them, this is something they mark themselves, right? Did I look in ninety percent of the time? That means I basically looked inside the siddur the entire, entire davening. Or did I really, really put in effort and look inside the siddur, like, really most of davening? Um, to think of the meaning of once tefillah, right? It's hard to concentrate. We all know this. So once tefillah, think of once tefillah as you're saying it. And, uh, to say your particular favorite section of the day. I don't do Mincha with them, but I figured once I was making a checklist to put it on. Um, I'm gonna end off with a story, and then I have the song. For those of you who want to hear the song, you have it on the last page. You're welcome to take it home and teach it to your students. Um, this story, I feel like when we teach our students to recognize that Hashem answers our tefillahs, thank you, Hashem. Look what Hashem gave me. We're gonna be able to bring them to a place like, oh my gosh, Hashem listens to me. I could talk to Hashem. I could ask Hashem. And even if Hashem didn't listen to me this time, I'm still gonna ask Hashem because Hashem can listen to me next time. It's very, very empowering for a student. So this story happened when I was teaching in LA. The

55:34 Speaker 2 school was getting accredited by the WASC Accreditation Association, whatever, uh, Western Accreditation, and, um, it's a really big deal. The school put, like, thousands and thousands of dollars and months into this accreditation process because, you know, there's a lot of grants and things that could come with the school being accredited. And, uh, when the accreditation team comes, they judge the school. They come for three and a half days. They, like, check every single thing. They speak to kids, parents, students, teachers. Office staff, they, like, literally turn over everything to get down to the bottom of what the school stands for and what type of school it is, and then they decide if they're giving one year, three years, or six years. And if they do six years, also they'll come in middle for a visit just to make sure everything's in place. So the school really cares about this visit. It's, like, very important. They have a lot of meetings with teachers about, you know, how to respond to the team if they ask you questions and, you know, a whole, like, 200-page booklet that you should read to be able to answer all the questions properly. And they can walk into any class at any time and just watch your teaching. So of course, everybody, you know, tries to put on a good presentation for a few days. Uh, not that you don't always, but you know, it's a special time. So it was the fourth day. They do three and a half days.

56:38 Speaker 2 It was a Wednesday. They go Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. And it was Wednesday morning, and this woman walks into my class, Mrs. Johnson. I know 'cause she gave me a card. She signed her name on the bottom. And, um, she came in, in middle of davening. Now, they're not supposed to come in the middle of davening, but I cannot kick her out. So she was there in middle of davening, and it was, like, the worst time. You know, like, in middle of Shemoneh Esreh, you have half the kids already sitting down. They already finished Shemoneh Esreh, those who finish Shemoneh Esreh. Some kids are still davening Shemoneh Esreh. Some are twiddling with, like, whatever fidget they have on their desk. Of course, I'm encouraging them, if they're done Shemoneh Esreh, to do something else, like say Tehillim or Chitas, but, you know. And there's, like, this silent awkwardness, and here she's in the back writing notes. I have no clue what she's writing, but it- ... so uncomfortable. And, uh, the girls, you know, get up to, like, we wait and wait, and then, okay, we're gonna start Ein Keloheinu, Aleinu. And we get up to Tehillim, and Baruch Hashem, Hashem put this thought in my mind. I said to her, "We're about to say a prayer for those who need a speedy recovery. Is there anybody that you would like us to pray for?" And she says, "Yes, Richard Brown." So I read my Tehillim list, and I say, "And Richard Brown," and l'chol

57:40 Speaker 2 chei v'ram l'tzorn. Of course, the kids are, like, giggling in their seats. And we say Lamnatzeach, and she leaves. Okay, we leave. She's out. Um, I left school. I leave school, I left school by lunch or after lunch, and it's two o'clock, 2:30. I get a call from school. My students are all in the office, and they had something they wanted to tell me. And, uh, they take the phone, and they tell me that this woman, Mrs. Johnson, came back to their class. Now, she had already left school, 'cause that day they were only in school for half the day, so they were gone by one o'clock. But she came back. And she came to the seventh grade, and she said to them, "This friend of mine, Richard Brown, he's a colleague, a motorcyclist, he got hit by a car. He was sent to the hospital this morning, and they said they would have to operate, they would have to do a surgery. And I just found out that he's okay, and they're gonna release him from the hospital." And she started to cry. She said, "I came to thank you for your prayers." Aw. And these kids were so touched. Of course, they had all these questions like, "Why doesn't Hashem, you know, answer, uh, to this for everybody else on our list?" But I could tell you that for, like, the next long time, th-they davened with so much kavana because, like, look, even this guy recognized that we davened and Hashem listened

58:42 Speaker 2 to us. So when we can help our students by prioritizing, showing them that this is the most important thing, preparing them properly for davening, personalizing, help them find their personal relationship with Hashem, and giving them prizes, yes, giving them prizes, we will see that they will-- their davening will raise up. And with that, as we said, all of their avodas Hashem. And I'm just gonna end off with playing this song. Feel free to leave if you have to go. But, um, if you want, this song is sung by, uh, Rabbi Moshe Goldstein. It's on page 12. It's on page 12 in your booklet. A yearning deep within. I want to do what's right. But sometimes I'm in darkness and confused. I need more light. Hashem, I turn to You to find the strength to fight. As my loving Father, I beg, please hold me tight. I'm searching for connection, focus, and direction. My siddur guides me through tat and yu. A yearning deep within. I want to do what's right. But sometimes I'm in darkness and confused. I need more light. Hashem, I turn to You to find the strength to fight. As my loving Father, I beg, please hold me tight. I'm searching for connection, focus, and direction. My siddur guides me through tat and yu. Tefillah's my connection. I want to be close to You. Davening's my protection, my growing bond through and through. Everything I have, my life, all that I am, I owe to You, Hashem. With each tefillah I say,

1:01:25 Speaker 2 I feel closer than before. Your love to me I feel, I am certain, I am sure. No matter when and where, I know that You are here. My Father, You love and care. Nahai, narai, larai, narai, narai. Tefillah's my connection. I want Everything I have, my life, all that I am, I owe to you, Hashem. Nahai, narai, narai, narai, narai. With each tefillah I say, I feel closer than before. Your love to me I feel, I am certain, I am sure. No matter when and where, I know that you are here. My Father, you love and care. Now throughout the day, my davening guides the way. I'm empowered, it's so clear. I know why I am here. It's real deep and true. It helps pull me through the challenges I face. Hashem, you know me best, only good you've given me. I have the strength I need to be all that I can be. How lucky and rich I am, a Yid, a precious Jew. Hashem, Hashem, I love you. Okay, I real- I realized I was rushing, like, through the workshop. In my mind, we started at two fifteen, but we, it- In my mind, we started at two fifteen, but actually this is from three thirty to, uh, from two thirty to three forty-five. So we do have a few minutes for questions. I just wanted to share something that I skipped out 'cause I thought we were short on time. When it comes to prizes and, um, you know, working with kids

1:04:22 Speaker 2 who are challenged, uh, there was a student I had, um, who was going through something in her life. There was something going on and, um, like, all of a sudden, I saw the decline in her davening. Like, she was davening so beautifully, and all of a sudden it was like s- you know, like, you could see a child struggling and, like, like, what the Rebbe says, the davening goes first. And I had a conversation with her parents, and her parents said, you know, um, "Ask her, um, we'll buy her a prize." I was doing, at that point of the year, prizes once a month, right? For, for good davening, and there was points and systems and, um, you got a prize once a month if you got, like, a certain average. And her parents said to me, you know, "Ask her what's a, what's a timeframe that she could daven, um, in that timeframe. Is it gonna be three days? It can be a week, and we'll buy her the prize." So th-they said, "Could you buy her the prize?" But it's important, I feel like it's important to include the parents in, in such a discussion, have the prize come from them, not to make differentiations as a teacher to the students, but to work with the parents, that if I'm gonna make differences, the parents are the ones who are gonna buy that prize at home. So I, I came up to this girl, you know, baruch Hashem, I caught her in the

1:05:27 Speaker 2 hallway with no one around, and I said to her, "You know, I-I've seen davening has been a little challenging for you. Now, you really did so well the first couple months. I wanna, I want to en-encourage you, and I wanna be able to, you know, give you a reward for your davening. What do you think is fair? Like, you know, what timeframe?" And she looks at me with her shoulders and she shrugs, "A month." Like, you know, like, "I don't wanna be different than everybody else." Now, it turns out I have everything marked, 'cause I mark their davening. Um, the last month that I looked at, she had davened three days in the month. Uh, going from, like, basically davening every single day, it was, whatever, the month before was already a decline, and then that month, she da-- She said to me, "Um, Jessica, I'm asking for three free days." Basically, like, "Three days that I don't get marked. I don't get a zero if I don't daven." I said, "Okay, that's very fair." I said, "That's very fair. That would be, uh, uh, we're just looking for better than last month, right? That would really be doing better than last month." And, you know, came to the room, and she davened beautifully one day, two days, three days, and she never used her three, you know, free davening's. And I was looking at Hashem, and I knew she was going through a lot at home, and I knew there was a lot going

1:06:30 Speaker 2 on in her life. And I said, "She's empowered," right? She says, "I, I wanna be just like everyone else. I could do it. I could daven for a month straight." And she did. And, um, you know, I, I encourage all of us, if we're having a student who is challenged, and challenging students are a, a discussion themselves, there are so many students who are challenged with davening, to ask ourselves, "Is there something I can do? Is there something I can do to help personalize the davening for this kid? Is there something I can do to, you know, um, to, to speak to her that a, a prize that would help her daven that her parents could give her?" And then there's those kids who are, like, really, really going through a challenging time, and sometimes, like, you know, the advice that I gave for Mrs. Krumin, sometimes we have to just let a kid be. And it's not something I would've said ear-- my early years of teaching, but, and, and this is for challenging kids. I don't want anyone to think like, "Okay, like, half my class is not davening. That's fine." No, no, no, no. That's not what I'm saying. Um, but in rare circumstances. Um, I also wanted to say something that, I'm just gonna catch up on things that I missed out. I heard this from a teacher in Toronto, and I thought it was so beautiful, in helping your students personalize davening. She, before davening every day, each kid in

1:07:34 Speaker 2 the class, so she goes up and down the aisles, every girl has one day that they choose the kavana for the day. So, uh, she does this for the whole morning, like, all the davening and learning. But I'm looking for the davening thing, right? Each girl has a chance to choose what the whole class is davening for that day, right? A person who needs a refua shleima, a certain yeshua, li'yi l'nishma, someone. And all of a sudden, like, each girl has a chance, like, the whole davening of the whole class is, is for someone I know. And that is very, very meaningful to a child, right? She realizes, like, "Oh, we're davening for, for something." So that was also just a different idea of what I can do to help personalize, um, the davening in my classroom and for my students. Um, okay, I'll answer a couple questions. So, yes. Do you have the recording of the song? Sure. I'm very happy to share the recording. Sorry. Uh, the WhatsApp for stories mine-- me and my sister. Uh, but I, I mean, it's like, really do, do a few minutes of searching chabad.org. I'm telling you, you're gonna find more than you think. First of all, each rebbe's name. Put in each rebbe's name. I know some people who keep it in like a binder, and they're like, "Oh, Chalasha." Right? So then you like a special day, you connect the story to that day. Try to make connections. Connect the story to a day,

1:08:50 Speaker 2 a time, a story to the Hayom Yom. The Hayom Yom talks about Avodah Yisrael. That's what the story of the day is gonna be about, right? Story-- If I do beard tefillah a little bit every morning, so story's connected. When the story's connected to something I'm teaching, it has a little bit of a, a b- uh, bigger impact. Um, uh, Mushka, you asked the question about davening with your students. So, you know, I'm not here to say it's like this is the only way, but I believe that, um, when students are being watched, they're young kids, right? This is elementary and junior high. It does make a difference in their davening. Um, but what about being a role model, right? They need to see a good davening. I think they all know what a good davening looks like. But regardless, I do say to them once in a while, maybe once a month, this year I did it maybe three times, you have to know your class, right? So like-- Or you like look for those days that the right kids are absent, right? And once in a while, I say, "Girls, today I really wanna daven with you. I love to daven with you. It's so special when I get to daven with you. Raise your hand if you think that if I daven with you today, you'll still be able to focus and concentrate just like always in your davening." And usually, they'll all raise their hands. But once in a while, like

1:09:50 Speaker 2 a kid will be like, you know. I'm like, "Okay, so today's not the day. Today, I'm not gonna daven with you." And because, like you empower them in that way, that davening on that day is beautiful. But if I were to do that every single day, it wouldn't be that way, right? So they have their one, two, three times. And, and like we all know, when teachers start davening with their students, like, uh, the kid walks in, like there's-- We're not able to be that real role model every single day. Even if we are, um, s- the role modeling is important. Like I've heard this, you know, "I'm not gonna tell my students to daven. They're gonna watch me, and they're gonna see it, and then hopefully they're, they're gonna daven well." I mean, come on, who are we kidding? It's like saying, "I'm not gonna tell my students anything about tznius. I'm gonna dress tzniusly every day. They're gonna see that I'm so tznius, and then they're gonna be inspired to dress tznius." Maybe it will work for one child, but that's not gonna work across the board, right, for the whole class. Yeah. Thank you for listening. Wishing you much hatzlacha in your vital shlichas.