This Week at YLS
News and Updates from Yeshiva Lab School
26 Shevat 5776
A Message From the Principal
Dear Parents,
Parshat Mishpatim contains the Torah’s most well known reference to empathy. “You will not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt” (23,9). Hashem is telling us: “you know how it feels to be a stranger, therefore you should not mistreat a stranger, empathize!!!”
At the time that this was said, being strangers in Egypt was a memory that was still fresh in the minds of the nation that Hashem was speaking with. Yet, we know the message of empathy Hashem is imparting applies just as much to us today as it did to the generation of B’nei Yisrael that lived through it then. We are expected to draw on the memory of what it was like to be a stranger in Egypt and use that memory to remind us to empathize with and never oppress a stranger today. Drawing on experiences you have had yourself is a profound way to help you understand how another might be feeling.
Even though Piaget and Kohlberg have argued that kindergarteners are not at a stage in their development to put themselves in another’s shoes, we can sensitize them to another person’s feelings and emotions. We can do this by thinking out loud and explicitly stating the emotion and possible cause of the emotion.
It may sound like:
“I am feeling a little cranky today because I went to sleep late last night.”
“I noticed that you are rubbing your eyes, are you tired?”
“Someone knocked over your tower, you seem mad.”
“I noticed Sam was crying today when he said goodbye to his mom, I wonder if he is feeling sad to leave her.”
This sensitizing can set the stage for their growth into the empathetic older children we hope to nurture them to become.
Shabbat Shalom!
Becky Troodler
From the YLS Parents Association
Important Calendar Dates
Friday, February 5- 1pm Dismissal, Afternoon LM Busing
Friday, February 12- 1pm Dismissal, Afternoon LM Busing
Monday, February 15- President’s Day -No School
Friday, February 19- 1pm Dismissal, Afternoon LM Busing
Friday, February 26- 1pm Dismissal, Afternoon LM Busing
Saturday, February 27- YLS Parent Melava Malka
Friday, March 4- 1pm Dismissal, Afternoon LM Busing
Yeshiva Lab School
Email: office@yeshivalabschool.org
Website: yeshivalabschool.org
Location: 612 Montgomery Avenue, Narberth, PA, United States
Phone: 6102063926
Facebook: www.facebook.com/yeshivalabschool
Twitter: @yeshivalab