When a pebble is thrown into a pond, it creates rings around the spot where the stone hit the water. The ripples become wider and wider and spread across the surface of the pond until they can no longer be seen by the human eye. So too, when a person performs an act of kindness, it creates a ripple effect with the people around them, causing the first act of kindness to morph into countless others. The effects of one act of kindness can keep going endlessly, helping and impacting countless numbers of lives.
Such a phenomenon happened in Mrs. Aliza Lee’s playgroup a few weeks ago when, in honor of their unit on chesed for the letter ches, she read Kindness Is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler by Margery Cuyler to her three- and four-year-old students. That same week, Mrs. Lee’s mother had to go to the hospital. After a very long night and early morning with her mother, Morah Aliza had to go to her playgroup. That is when the beautiful ripple effect begun.
The next day, a little girl named Dassi brought in a plate of homemade cookies for her Morah’s mother. The following day, another girl named Tzippy brought in a container of chicken soup because she’d seen Dassi bring the cookies. A few days later another student, Sara Nava, brought in a homemade refua sheleima booklet with pictures and hearts and stickers that she made for Morah Aliza’s mother. Once each of the children saw that first act of kindness, they all wanted to be a part of it.
Seeing the children’s excitement fueled Mrs. Lee to come up with an even bigger idea to get all of her students involved.
“I’ve been running a large playgroup for the past nine years,” Mrs. Lee explains. “What I love most about what I do is providing my little ones with an engaging, stimulating, immersive curriculum. I believe that children at this age learn best through experiences that provoke them to think.” And what better a way to experience this mizva of helping and giving than by putting on a bake sale, with all proceeds going toward the Jewish Caring Network?
With three long tables set up in the Ohr Hamizrach social hall, laden with cookies and cakes made by Mrs. Lee’s friends and family, fellow morahs, and students’ parents, the children were ready to start selling the goods. Each of Morah Aliza’s students got to take a turn behind the toy cash register. Their parents helped them count the change, but the children took the customers’ money, put them in the cash register, and bagged the purchased baked goods all by themselves.
“Morah Aliza really thinks out of the box,” says one parent, Shoshana Nourmand. “She always encourages the kids to do mitzvos. This bake sale really connects them to everyday life, teaching them how to be giving and to do chesed.”
Looking around the room at the bake sale, I could see the children’s excitement and how much pride they had in manning the little red and blue cash register. As Mrs. Lee told me more about her teaching style, how important she thought immersive learning was at this age, I was truly able to appreciate the effects that such lessons can have on young children. In taking a topic that can sometimes be presented a little intangibly and making it instead into a concrete experience, Morah Aliza created a fun day of giving that her students are sure to remember forever.
I found Dassi’s mother, Elana Stieglitz, and wanted to know what went on at her end when Dassi decided to bring those cookies into playgroup to give to her Morah’s mommy.
“We were getting ready to leave one morning and Dassi said, ‘I want to bring cookies to Morah’s mommy because she’s in the hospital,’” Mrs. Stieglitz shares. “I had just made cookies, so I said sure! While we were rushing to find shoes and coats, we packed up some cookies as well. Morah Aliza said that it just started this ripple effect where everybody was bringing things for her mother, who really appreciated it. And then she had this idea for the bake sale.”
What started off as reading a book at circle time turned into a plate of homemade cookies, a container of chicken soup, a handmade refua sheleima book, and a delicious bake sale that raised nearly $500 for the Jewish Caring Network.
The ripple effect of chesed can start at anytime, anywhere, and at any age. “Even Dassi understands,” Mrs. Stieglitz says. “She told me, ‘I started the chesed.’ And it keeps going on and on.”
