Gathering Sparks

We are reading this and Schwartz’s other book Before You Were Born to our little girl on the regular. We have other Jewish books that talk about holidays, etc but these offer a more spiritual and tender aspect of Judaism.

This was given as a gift ... the children (under 5 years) have made it their favorite book to have read to them.The parents are pleased with it as well!

This is a beautiful book, both in the words and the illustrations. After we'd borrowed it from the library, we had to buy a copy for ourselves, as well as for an adult in our family that is always giving and doing good deeds for others. She was quite moved and loved it as much as we did. Excellent message, we love this one!!

This book fits perfectly into my introduction to Tikkun Olam and why the Diaspora occurred. Beautifully illustrated and lovely, lyrical verse.

Author Howard Schwartz and illustrator Kristina Swarner have worked together to present the kabbalistic story of creation and our purpose in life with beauty and gentleness--a wonderful story to read aloud to a special child in your life.

Learning about the ways that different cultures view random events adds to our understanding of cultural diversity. Judaism adheres to a concept of tikkun olam or repairing the world. Everyone, according to this tradition, is responsible for doing their fair share to improve the world.Gathering Sparks uses the dialogue between a grandfather and his grandchild to explore the background of this Jewish belief and also provides examples of how people can improve the world.Kristina basic drawings skillfully capture the essential aspects of the historical basis for this complex Jewish concept. The engaging and child friendly illustrations allow younger readers to gain an understanding of a philosophical and mystical concept.The explanation begins when the young child asks her grandfather, "Where did all the stars come from?' In response to the question, the grandfather simplifies a mystical teaching that dates back to the teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria who lived during the 16th century. He tells the story of 10 vessels that are similar to a fleet of ships. Each vessel is filled with light and is destined to create a perfect world. Before reaching their intended harbor, the vessels shatter. Stars are created throughout the sky and sparks of light fall everywhere. According to this teaching, people were created so that they could gather all of these sparks by doing good deeds. After all of the shards are collected, three things will occur:The world will be repaired.The 10 original vessels will be put back together.There will be worldwide peace.This uplifting award-winning picture book is a wonderful introduction to Jewish mystical thought.

I hate, hate, hate to write a critical review for such a morally good book, and I am still giving it four stars for all the great things about it. But I think it's important for parents to know that the story in it--while BEAUTIFUL and a very appealing concept--is actually more of a Manichean tale than a Jewish one. That is to say, it is originally a doctrine from the religion Manicheism. Manicheists believed that goodness was released into the world in little pieces, and that they could be released into the cosmic order when we did good deeds. This helped the struggle for good fight against the inclination to do evil (though neither would ever win). This legend forms the backbone of this story, in almost unaltered form, except for the insertion that God created these vessels of good before He created the world (i.e. somewhere between Genesis 1:8 and 1:9).The author maintains (on the last page) that this book is of Jewish origin, from Rabbi Isaac Lucia. She says that the story is really about Jews having their destiny post-diaspora, having been flung all over the world. And that their role is tikkun olam, or repair of the world. That makes for a nice allegory. And to be sure, my littlest kids loved this book. As a parent, I like the concept of "gathering sparks." It makes something difficult to think about (restoration) really easy for kids to understand. It's a lot like the "Have You Filled A Bucket Today?" concept.But as a religious parent, I was still a little disturbed to see such a similarity between this story and a religion that was dubbed extremely heretical by Christians and Jews throughout the Middle Ages. If you're a purist and care about this sort of thing, I wouldn't buy the book. Or if you don't approve of the tradition of reading stories into the biblical account, then don't.If you don't care about any of this kind of stuff, go for it! The illustrations are wonderful and you'll all enjoy it at face value.

A great resource for teaching about creation