Treasure Trove: Yom Kippur is Not a Game. Or is it?

What could be more fun than selecting the Yom Kippur card in a game of “Hageinu” (“Our Holidays”)?  This was one of the more than 100 original Hebrew games that were manufactured and produced by Benjamin Barlevy (1894 to 1964), the pioneer of the Israeli game industry, who immigrated to Israel from Warsaw when he was 27.

Barlevy based his games on Zionist themes which familiarized children with the Land of Israel, local plants and animals, Hebrew literature, Zionist personalities, Jewish composers and other themes, including in this case Jewish holidays.

In 1941, Barlevy created the first (unlicensed) Hebrew version of Monopoly which he called Rikuz (which means concentration but is called “Concern” in English).  The game was a great commercial success and became a favourite of children, notwithstanding that adults criticized it for its capitalist values which did not align with the labour inspired values being espoused at the time.  The game was attacked in a letter to the editor of the Davar newspaper which said that Rikuz is “a completely improper game, one who wishes to guard his children’s souls should distance them from it”.

Many of the Barlevy designed games were “quartet games” like “Go Fish” where the objective of the game is to collect complete sets of four cards.  In Hageinu, the four sets were Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah and  Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah, Tu B’Shvat, Purim, Passover, Shavuot, and Chanukah. Each card in the set had a different drawing and subject within the theme, together with a short explanation.

There is a single card for Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day) and whoever is dealt this card goes first.

This card is a little dark for a children’s game.  It has no illustration and only text which says that on this day, in the exercise of the valid, natural and historic right to the Land of Israel, following generations of terrible torment and inhuman suffering of the entire nation at the hands of its enemies and oppressors, after a heroic battle against the invaders of the land, on the fifth day of the month of Iyar the State of Israel was proclaimed.

With that opening:  kids have fun! 

The goal of the game is to collect complete sets of four, with whoever completes the most sets being the winner.  Under the rules of the game, whoever is the winner is required to tell the other players something of their choosing about one of the holidays in the game.

This Yom Kippur card explains that this is a day of prayer and fasting for all the children of Israel, wherever they are, and that on this day every Jew gives themselves a judgment and accounting of their deeds throughout the year.

Yom Kippur begins at sundown on Sunday September 20.  Fasting and praying for a whole day is no game.  Treasure Trove wishes you an easy fast, and hopes that your name shall be signed and sealed in the Book of Life.

For more treasures from the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, which have appeared weekly in the Treasure Trove column in the Canadian Jewish News (www.thecjn.ca) since February 2021, see https://herzlcollection.com/treasure-trove