Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso has given us some of our favorite children's books: God's Paintbrush, God in Between, A Prayer for the Earth,and others. She has a knack for taking biblical stories and spiritual concepts and bringing them into the context of children's lives. This book is another wonderful example. With beautiful illustrations by Joani Rothenberg, she explores the creation story.
"On the first day of creation, God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light and nothing else." This first light, according to Jewish legend, was different from the light of the sun and the moon and the stars. The first light made possible all the other days of creation.
Over the years, the first light was hidden from Adam and Eve, carried like a gem on Noah's ark, and passed down from parent to child to this very day. And, Sasso assures children, you can find it today — in the middle of a huge hug, peeking out from behind a giant smile, in a room filled with questions, in a meadow of memories, and in the face of a newborn baby.
Sasso adds questions about the biblical characters mentioned in the book for parents and teachers to talk about with children. She shows us how the legend of the first light — a.k.a. the soul — can open up conversations between the generations.
