P.S. Remember the awesome after-school program I mentioned in the previous post? The one that got my kids to stay up all night learning Torah on Shavuot?

So, every week, they come home with a laminated card, often with a magnet on the back, about the value they studied that week. Last week, they came home with this:

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What on earth, you may be wondering, is a picture of Messi doing illustrating a card about a value learned from the Mishna?!

R1 explained it to me: The value they were studying was hakarat hatov, which literally means “recognizing the good”. The term describes a sort of humble gratitude: recognizing and acknowledging the good that someone (or Someone) has done for you, rather than taking full credit for all your achievements.

To demonstrate this value, their teacher showed them a video of a spectacular soccer game won by the Barcelona team. When Messi scores the winning goal, he points at the sky–as shown in the photo–and then points at the player who passed him the ball. Their teacher explained to them that even Messi, revered by practically every Israeli boy as the best soccer player in the world, recognizes that his accomplishments are not his alone, but are thanks to God–who gave him the talent and opportunities that brought him to where he is today–and to his team members, without whom he would never have been able to win the game.

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And that is how you teach a group of soccer-obsessed Israeli boys about gratitude and humility!

I told you their teacher is a genius! 😉