Shavuot: When Children Take Their Parents to Synagogue

Jewish families around the world, including babes in arms, will be gathering in synagogues this Friday, May 26, to hear the reading of the Ten Commandments on the holiday of Shavuot. For many, it’s the children who are encouraging their parents to join them in synagogue.

Karen and Elan Reubin, of Herndon, Va., say they are excited to participate in Shavuot celebrations with their 5-year-old son Eli at the Chabad Jewish Center Reston-Herndon. Eli attends the Chabad Hebrew school on Sundays, and he and his parents all want to experience the holiday together as a family.

In many places around the world, Chabad Hebrew schools are the primary point of Jewish contact for families, and children come home spreading the enthusiasm they experience for Judaism with their parents. On Shavuot, the kids’ enthusiasm for Judaism is coupled with customary ice-cream parties; it’s too much of a good thing for many families to turn down. Nevertheless, parents say, it’s not the dairy treats but the Torah that’s the main draw.

“It’s just a great experience,” says Karen Reubin. “Having all the kids there and listening to the Ten Commandments is a big thing because we expect Eli to live according to them. The Ten Commandments, they should go into his ears; he should learn it’s a way of life, to ensure he listens to them every year and learns more every year.”

Shavuot (“weeks” in Hebrew) starts this year on the evening of Thursday, May 25, and lasts through the evening of Saturday, May 27. Including children is especially appropriate on Shavuot, the holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah at Sinai shortly after the Exodus from Egypt. At that time, the Midrash relates, G‑d agreed to give the Torah to the Jewish people only after the children were offered as “guarantors,” ensuring that the Torah would be learned, cherished and observed for generations to come.

In modern times, the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—called upon every Jewish man woman and child to be present in the synagogue on the morning of the first day of Shavuot, when the Ten Commandments are read as part of the prayer service.

Such unity is fostered even more in this Hakhel year, Jewish people have been gathering in groups large and small for Torah study and camaraderie.

Eli Reubin, 5, attends Chabad Hebrew school in Herndon, Va. He and his parents will be experiencing Shavuot together as a family.

Rabbi Leibel and Nechamie Fajnland are looking forward to hosting the Shavuot events at Chabad of Herndon, which include the reading of the Torah, an ice cream party and dinner. They hope to impart how important every individual’s role is, whether children and adults. “We hope people get an appreciation of how every one of us is critically important for the Jewish community,” he says. “We’re told we were all there at Sinai, and if a single one of us was missing, it would have never happened.”

In Arizona, the Meyer family is looking forward to spending Shavuot together at Chabad of Flagstaff, where Rabbi Dovie and Chaya Shapiro, co-directors of Chabad of Flagstaff, will host guests for meals, as well as offer classes for adults and a program for kids. They’re also welcoming a pastry chef from Lakewood, N.J., who will be making desserts for all of their events over the holiday, he says.

Meyer says she’s taking her kids—ages 8, 7 and four months—to hear the Ten Commandments so they can get a sense of where Judaism comes from and be inspired to grow in their Judaism. “Being a light unto the nations, I think this is where it starts for us, to learn what it means to be Jewish, how to be Jewish. We have a blueprint for how to carry that out into the world. It started with this holiday,” she explains.

“I hope they’re inspired to continue to be good Jewish children who will blossom into good Jewish adults,” she says. “And to continue loving their Judaism.”

In Arizona, the Meyer family is looking forward to spending Shavuot together at Chabad of Flagstaff.

Torah Study Through the Night

Around the world, Chabad centers will be holding all-night Tikkun Leil Shavuot study sessions, hosting scholars-in-residence and inviting the community to take part in festive events. “I think the holiday is kind of the basis for everything we do as Jews; it’s the receiving of the Torah, and so it’s foundational in the Jewish journey,” explains Meyer, who also helps facilitate booking programs run by the Flagstaff Chabad.

It’s a good time to reconnect with dear friends and take note of important Jewish themes, says Baruch Gershater. Gershater and his wife, Wendy Weed, moved to Bend, Ore., from Arizona, but will be spending Shavuot back in Flagstaff with their longtime community. “The Jewish people have been so amazing with our small numbers, with our bond together from our learning,” he says. “We’re going to celebrate; we’re going to dance!”

Every time he reads Torah, he learns something new, Gershater says, and Shavuot will be no exception. “You learn something new and you add it to your life, and it makes your life better, it makes other people’s lives better,” he says.

He says he’s eager to see friends, try the food and be in wonder, awe and appreciation of what the Jewish people have been given, emphasizing: “It’s the Torah that’s kept us together, even in the Diaspora, wherever we had to go.”

To find readings of the Ten Commandments in 333 cities in 22 countries, visit the Chabad.org Shavuot Directory.