I don't remember too much about the way we celebrated siyumim when I was growing up. Specifically in school.
I remember that in our shul there was a mishnayos shiur for kids on Shabbos afternoon. It was led by Rabbi Morrie Esformes. When we would complete a tractate or a seder, our siyum would often consist of a trip to a White Sox game or a Blackhawks game. Maybe a pizza party as well...
Those were the best.
But in school I do not remember any siyum standing out. Maybe we just never finished anything! We probably had pizza or something like that any school siyum though.
My kids all made siyumim in school the past week or two. Allow me for a moment to describe the siyumim they participated in.
My 1st grade son completed the whole Chumash of Breishis by years end. They had a siyum last week. The various parents made cakes. In addition they had a "seudas mitzvah" consisting if rolls with chumos, ketchup or some other selections that kids seem to like (no real food for some reason). In addition, all the fathers came and with the rebbe, the kids were asked questions from anywhere in the whole chumash breishis and they all screamed out answers. Also one of the local rabbonim came and asked some questions as well and then gave a bracha to them.
My 4th grade son completed the whole mishnayos Shabbos last week. His rebbe made a siyum of a Friday night dinner. Ever parent made a dish and sent it to school. The kids went together to daven in a nearby shul and then had Friday night dinner in the school with the rebbi.
This rebbi is very creative - they decorated the room and had a wonderful time. He also printed up shabbos zemiros bentchers with the announcement on the front being a momento from the siyum of 4th grade 5768...
My 6th grade son completed a perek in gemara last week, along with mishnayos bechoros and sefer yeshayahu. They had a siyum last week consisting of a full fleishige meal in school. The parents each made various dishes to send for the meal.
I don't know for sure, but I suspect if we had had siyumim like that in school, we might have been encouraged to learn more and better....
I recall learning about that. In order to succeed in the ruchniess, you need to first take care of your guf. With my chavrusa and I we had a deal that if we showed up on time x number of times, we'd go out to eat (something like steak - a real yetzer hara dika food). We figured if our guf was happy, it wouldn't put up a fight with the y"h to stop our learning.
ReplyDelete