Howard Schwartz’s book Gathering Sparks is perfect for teaching children the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam — repairing the world. In the book, he writes, “For every good deed you do, one of those hidden sparks rises up and a little bit of the world is repaired.” What a wonderful visual to understand that when we do something helpful or kind, it really does make a positive difference. Your kiddos will love keeping track of their “sparks” and seeing that they’re helping make the world a better place with this Tikkun Olam Sparks Tracker (link to the free PDF below). When they fill up one chart, they can start a new one! To keep things interesting, there are three different versions. It would be fun to collect them in a binder for a full year to see how many “sparks” your kiddos collect!

If you tell your kiddos that they are Tikkun Olam Superheroes and we all need their strength, bravery, and kindness to help save the world, they will be up, up, and away in a flash! Tikkun Olam, which means “repair the world,” is a central Jewish value that calls on everyone to do mitzvot and everything possible to fix what is broken in our world so that it may become whole. Help your little superheroes look the part by letting them create their very own Tikkun Olam superhero cape. They can make a matching superhero mask, too! In the wise words of Spiderman (although it sounds like something Moses could have said): “With great power comes great responsibility.” Indeed it does!