Vision for Conservative Early Childhood Programs: A Journey Guide

Preparing Yourself for Wrestling with God – For Adults
In order to invite God into the classroom, teachers must be at least somewhat comfortable
talking and thinking about God. This is certainly not to say that teachers must know what
(or when) God is. If that were the case, very few people would consider themselves
qualified to teach about God. Rabbi David Wolpe, the rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los
Angeles and the author of Teaching Your Children About God, assures us that when it
comes to talking about God and making meaning of our lives, we often can give what we
don’t have. In fact, it is not our task as adults to
transmit to children an exact copy of our faith and idea
of God. Rather, it is our task to use our own faith –
beliefs, questions, ideas, and even doubts – to help
children develop their own faith. It is our responsibility
to help children develop their own ideas of God in a
way that is valuable and true both to the traditions we
hold and to what we know about the world.
To help children, we do have to have some sense of our
own faith, our spirituality, our idea of God. Before we
can really hear and deal with children’s questions about
God, we have to have asked our own questions about
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God and to have sought out some answers. We don’t necessarily have to have found the
answers, but we must be looking. Our forefather Jacob wrestles with a man, possibly an
angel, in the Torah (Genesis 32:25-31) and is renamed Israel, which means “wrestles
with God.” Jews are God-wrestlers. Doubt is part of the equation. Yet Rabbi Daniel
Gordis (1999) warns us about sharing too many of our doubts with young children. In
every aspect of life, it is our duty to assure children that they are living in a good, secure,
safe world. The same guidelines apply to helping children think about God. Though we
should never lie to children, it is not dishonest to help children grow up believing that
God is loving and caring and treasures every human being, including them.
Never be afraid to tell a child “I don’t know.” It’s okay, in fact important, for children to
know that grown-ups don’t have all the answers about God (or most anything else in life).
Rather than make up an answer to a child’s question, which will only cause the child to
mistrust or to have to unlearn later, tell a child, “I don’t know. What do you think? I
wonder about that too.” Then listen to the child’s answer, and ask questions to help the
child expand on his or her own ideas of God.
Our job as teachers is to allow children the space and safety to explore God.
Preparing yourself for talking with children about God
Dr. Saul Wachs (1998) notes that there are 105 names for God in the Jewish tradition,
driving home the point that try as we might, it is impossible for us to pinpoint the essence
of God. Wachs suggests two metaphors of God that are especially useful with young
Vision for Conservative Early Childhood Programs: A Journey Guide
USCJ Department of Education
Maxine Handelman
Handelman@uscj.org
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