Parashat Nasso - June 6

(Just a reminder that each week I will post to both the Facebook group and this website a recommended craft that loosely parallels some of that week’s themes. [If you have ideas for the craft – please let me know!] FYI - my versions will be geared towards the Shabbat B’Yachad and preschool set and will use art materials relatively easily found. That said, I want the whole community involved …. so use this just as a jumping off point to make anything you are inspired to do, including “adult” projects. Finally, a craft circle only works if it is a group effort so please share! Post pictures of your art to this thread in the comments. )

So without further ado – Parashat Nasso. In Nasso, God tells Moses and Aaron the priestly blessing. The priestly blessing is given under a tallit which inspired this week's craft - making your own tallit. For Aryeh’s we used a paper shopping bag, blue tape, construction paper, ribbon, scissors, a single hole punch, glue, markers and stickers. If you want to make it the way we did our, below are the instructions....

1. Remove the handles from the shopping bag.

2. Cut on the middle seam of both sides of the paper bag so it will fit on the child like a poncho or a tallit katan.

3. Cut out a neck hole large enough to fit around the child's head.

4. Flip bag inside out so any image printed on the bag in on the inside.

5. Use blue tape to reinforce the neck area and hold down any loose parts of the shopping bag.

6. Punch a hole in the 4 corners of the bag with the single hole punch.

7. With scissors, make short cuts along the bottom of the bag between each of the holes made by the hole punch. Fold these up a bit so they look like fringes.

8. Measure out and cut 4 equal sized long pieces of ribbon. For Aryeh's, we measured using his arm length.

9. Loop the ribbon through each hole punched hole and knot repeatedly. Be sure to leave some loose at the bottom. For Aryeh's, we just did a few random knots on each ribbon but you can look here if you want to do the knot properly.

10. Take pre-cut strips of construction paper and glue them to make strips on your tallit. I recommend doing these horizontally towards the bottom of your tallit leaving it empty closer to the neck. Don't forget to do both sides.

11. Add more construction paper to the neck area to make your atarah, the crown of the tallit.

12. Now it's time to decorate. Use markets and stickers to make your tallit unique.

13. Finally put it on!

Looking forward to seeing your creativity.

Alex