Participants
Aidyn L.
אהבת שלום
Tefillah is about finding peace with ourselves, our classmates, and most importantly, Hashem. Our Beit Knesset should represent our growth from people mumbling words to people finding peace with themselves. It is a truly wonderful thing when you can look around you and see people who love davening and whose goal is not to mumble fast enough to get to the next class, but to find peace with Hashem.Jaren L.
מקום של מסע
The name I chose for the new Tefillah space is מקום של מסע. (Makom Shel Maseh). This mean a place of journey. A place of carrying. What I intended for the name was that we were in a place of journey. A place that you can explore and follow the path, like a journey. Find your own way to connect to yourself and Hashem. A journey is a big event of you seeking things. Seeking Tefillah, Torah, Hashem, and most importantly your Jewish self and identity. The other meaning of מסע, like I said earlier, is to carry. Instead of thinking as carry in a physical context think of it in a mental context. You are carrying down tradition. Tefillah helps people know what they’re supposed to say when praying to God. Overtime you start to know the prayers very well. You start to understand them. Then when you become an adult you have children. You want to carry on the tradition of saying the prayers you said, and maybe even the tune you sang. This journey of learning Tefillah, doing Tefillah, and experiencing Tefillah, helps us carry on the tradition of praying and being Jewish. Carry on the customs we learn in Tefillah. Make new traditions in your family from the journey you had. In a place of journey you experience new and amazing things. All of this is why I want our Beit HaMikdash to be named מקום של מסע. This is just the beginning of our overall journey of Judaism throughout life.
I came up with this when I thought to go to the Parsha Beshalach. Beshalach is my Bar Mitzvah Parsha. The Parsha is the journey of the Jews and the splitting of the seas. I knew that there are tons of amazing words in Beshalach that would be great names for a Synagogue. I thought of words like miracle, freedom, religion, and etc. But what stood out the most was the word “Journey”. I knew that it would be a great name. So I saw the hebrew word in the text. The word “Journey” appears twice in the Parsha, or “Journeyed”.
Exodus 16:1 “They journeyed from Elim, and the entire community of the children of Israel came to the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.”
Exodus 17:1 “The entire community of the children of Israel journeyed from the desert of Sin to their travels by the mandate of the Lord. They encamped in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink.”
Nicknames for Makom Shel Maseh are “Maseh”, “The Place”, “The Makom”, “Shel Maseh”, and other ones people think of.
Eliana G.
Or Kadosh
Nickname: O’k (Not O-K)
The phrase, “Or Chadash all tzion tair vinezke coolano mihaira lioro,” or “May you shine a new light on Zion, and may we all speedily merit its light,” is said every morning during Shachris. We say this phrase asking God to “shine a new light” on Yerushalaim. Being in Atlanta, its hard to connect to what is going on in Israel. In the past, we had a davening spot where we couldn’t really connect-considering we were in the teacher’s lounge. But due to some quick thinking by our teachers Mrs.Bornstein, Mr. Forbus, and Rabbi Karp, we have settled in a new “makom kodesh.” We have sparked a Holy Light from inside ourselves and have come together to create a community in our school. In the Or Kadosh we can focus on our Tefillah and not on school.
Ruthie S.
קהל ה׳
We want קהל ה׳ as the sanctuary name because we feel that togetherness is very important as we get older and throughout our lives. It is comforting to know that the 7th and 8th grade join together every morning to daven. It is important that we are together and davening together helps us bond. This is certain. Being together is an absolute gain for everyone. קהל ה׳ in English means congregation of God. That pretty sums up what the Jewish nation is. We are just a small part of the Jewish nation and yet we have an impact. When we work together we can accomplish anything. :)
Evan E.
Beit Kesher Torah
I believe this would be a good name with much meaning since the seventh graders are putting on tefilin for the first time, and they are being bar mitzvah'd. So they are connecting themselves to the Torah, as well as the kesher tefilin. I believe this is a worthy name, acknowledging the seventh graders responsibilities of this year, and years to come
Ari F. & Eitan L.
Beit Avraham
We want to call our shul Beit Avraham, Why is it called Beit Avraham? We thought that we should name it this for two reasons. First of all, we thought that we should name it after one of our forefathers, because they began our nation. Great. Now we have narrowed it down to three men. We decided that we should take the one of them that has the best lesson for us. We chose Avraham because of his mitzvah of hachnassat orchim. Welcoming the guests. We want our Beit Knesset to be known as a place where people can come if they are in need of a place to daven. Everyone can come, if they are mourners, or just in need of a place to pray to G-d.
Ellie D.
בית תפילתי
I chose this name because Beit means house or home and Tefilati refers to the Tefila that we pray. As students, and as young Jews, we need a place other than a shul to daven and be close to HaShem.
Third Place
Zach M.
המקום קודש
The name I thought of for our shul is “HaMakom Kodesh,” meaning “the Holy place.”I chose this name because in the book of Yehoshua in Perek ה Pasuk ט’’ו, which is right before Bnai Yisrael takes over Yericho, and an angel appears before Yehoshua, and this angel tells Yehoshua that, “המקום אשר אתה עמד עליו קדש הוא.” This means, the ground you stand upon is a holy place. But, HaMakom Kodesh has another meaning.
המקום is also one of God’s names, and המקום קדש also means, “God is holy.” That is the goal of the tefillah, to try and find the holiness in God in our davening, and trying to make ourselves holy by connecting to God.
Second Place
Micah F.
בית אחדות - The House of Unison
Unison, or togetherness, is what keeps the Jewish people resilient. Unison is what makes Judaism unlike any other religion. When Jewish people all over the world are murdered or mistreated, we all feel the pain, we all feel as if we have lost a brother or sister. Jewish people have been together and will stick together forever. The true definition of unison is having each others back and loving the people around you. This name sums up the secret of the Jewish people. So if anyone ever says, “so, after all these years, how are the Jewish people still around?”, do not overthink this question, just say the answer, unison.
First Place Winner
Ari S.
בני ציון
My name for the new shul is B’nei Tzion. This can mean multiple things. The most obvious is children of Jerusalem and Israel / children for Jerusalem and Israel. But Tzion does not have to mean Israel. When Tzion is first mentioned in history, it refers to a fortress: Fortress of Tzion. This does not refer to a war fortress; it is more of a safe environment where you feel protected and peaceful. Also, in masechet brachot 64a, Rabbi Elazar said in the name of Rabbi Hanina, “scholars increased peace throughout the world, for it is said (in Isaiah 54:13): ‘all your children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children.’” Rabbi Elazar says:”read not here banayikh [your children], but bonayikh [your builders - scholars are the true builders of peace]. You can apply the same principle by thinking of bnei tzion as if it were bonei tzion. This name represents not only supporting Israel, rebuilding Jerusalem with our prayer, and being the children of this new safe environment, but also, it shows that we are the true builders of this new environment and it is our new home / “fortress” of peace and prayer.
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