In the fall of 2001, when my son, Aaron, was in the first grade, the world seemed to be a particularly vulnerable and scary place. I began to evolve my “Rabbi Rocketpower” stories to focus his attention on caring and positive role models and to show him that our family had the power to overcome difficult situations.
I saw how much he loved to read funny books, yet there was nothing in Jewish children’s literature that grabbed his attention in the same way. I also thought it would be important to feature a female rabbi superhero for children to admire. So, together, we came up with Jewish stories that made the members of their family into superheroes, saving each Jewish holiday from those who threatened to disrupt it.
What alien is trying to disrupt Hanukkah? Shabbat? Passover? Tu Bishvat? Rabbi Rocketpower, her courageous son, Aaron, and their crazy cat, Purr, challenge children of all ages to unlock the mystery.
Another tradition Aaron and I had when he was young was baking challah from scratch every Friday afternoon. We had it down to a science. We would race home from school to make the dough. While I prepared the Torah portion for the evening, we would come up with a way to shape the challah to remind us of the parashah. After years of making challot in special shapes, I decided to create a user-friendly book, “Challah: A Chewish Guide to the Torah,” to quickly outline each Torah portion and include a photo of a challah that people can make to have a taste of Torah as they celebrate Shabbat.
Check out the books on Amazon.
This post has been contributed by a third party. The opinions, facts and any media content are presented solely by the author, and JewishBoston assumes no responsibility for them. Want to add your voice to the conversation? Publish your own post here. MORE
