Starting School Prayers in Jewish | Jewish Blessings for Starting School

Starting School

Inspiration

Just yesterday they first learned to crawl – wide-eyed sponges absorbing most everything said and done around them. In the blink of an eye, now it’s time for their next adventures of classrooms, books and play.

Jewish tradition enshrines education as a cornerstone of life and a portal for every cherished Jewish value. Education is the key to unlock each person’s great potential. With a poignant mix of emotion, we send our children into the world to learn, to teach and to transform the world.

Prayer

For a young child

It seems just yesterday that you fit snugly in my arms.
School days seemed a lifetime away –
and now they’re here.
May these days be full of adventure,
new friends and exciting ideas
that help you to grow into your best you.
May you feel love surrounding you
as you take your next steps into the world.

Text

Isaiah 48:17

“Thus said God your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I the Holy One am your God, teaching you for your own benefit, guiding you in the way you should go.”

Proverbs 1:7–9

Awe of God is the start of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and discipline. My child, heed the ways of your father, and do not forsake the instruction of your mother. For they are like a graceful wreath on your head and a necklace about your throat.

Proverbs 22:6 (for the teacher)

Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.

Poem

Targets

My teacher says my targets are:
To write more neatly,
to spell more words correctly,
to get more sums right,
to chatter less,
and to behave myself.
But the targets I set myself
are far more interesting:
To climb a tree to the top,
to stop time before my spelling test,
to think up a disappearing spell
and try it out on my teacher,
to leap from up high
and to defy gravity.
These are my targets,
the ones I’m aiming to complete
before next week….
The ones my teacher sets
may take a little longer……..

C. Brian Moses, Lost Magic: The Very Best of Brian Moses (Macmillan, 2011)

Psalm

Psalm 78:1 – 7

Give ear, my people, to my teaching, turn your ear to what I say.

I will expound a theme, hold forth on the lessons of the past,

things we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us.

We will not withhold them from their children, telling the coming generation the praises of the LORD and His might, and the wonders He performed.

He established a decree in Jacob, ordained a teaching in Israel, charging our fathers to make them known to their children,

that a future generation might know — children yet to be born — and in turn tell their children that they might put their confidence in God, and not forget God’s great deeds, but observe His commandments.