Seeking Chabad

I made a reservation to be at Chabad for erev Simchat Torah.  There are times I prefer to be there.  I've never been mistreated there. I don't even know if it's possible to be treated poorly there, at least if you are male.  In our modern era where everyone slights everyone else, such places are rare. They have their ingrained customs, a few of which exclude me, though I've never felt excluded.  In many ways just the opposite.  Their legacy Rebbe z"l insisted that people be brought closer than when they arrived.  And his shlechim who I've met never disappoint.  Kindness has a very high value there, as I learned in other settings.

I particularly seek out erev Simchat Torah.  They have a mincha service for which I am helpful to their minyan.  Then they have a small buffet in their rather large sukkah, though the requirement to be in the sukkah has passed by then.  They do not charge for the meal.  I eat judiciously, though their Rabbi sometimes nudges me to help myself to more.

What attracts me, though, comes between the meal and the formality of maariv services with its hakafot, where the Torah scrolls are paraded though the sanctuary and, weather permitting, outside while songs are sung and the men, only men, dance with the scrolls.  Many also lift up their kids in lieu of holding a scroll.  Yet that is also not why I target this evening for being there.  Before maariv, their assistant Rabbi sits all the children in a line, boys and girls together, approximately by age with the youngest on the left.  He poses them a question, usually asking what type of activity they will assign themselves going forward to perform the required mitzvot more consistently.  He starts with the younger children.  Questions of this type are fairly easy and answers plentiful.  They will help mom with shabbos dinner or say the traditional prayer on arising every morning, or be nicer to their brothers.  As the kids get older, many already performing what is expected of them, the answers get harder.  What do I do now that I can do even better, not correcting what I am neglecting, though there is some of that.  Everybody can donate a little more to tzedakah, or maybe the same total amount but giving on a set schedule.  They have a study curriculum in school.  They can add some study not required of them in school.  And they can be a little more patient with their younger sibs or more helpful to their parents. I think of my answers as he goes, keeping them to myself.

While each child announces his or her upcoming resolve, the very personable Rabbi cheers them on and makes his share of quips that cause the parents, or observers like me, to grin a few times.  In some ways the event reminds me of the final minutes of Art Linkletter's House Party, where he would interview four school age children during the final few minutes of his daily show.  They would say the darndest things, which became the title of his book.  

I have a synagogue too, one that does not generate frequent grins considering the regularity of my attendance.  Simchat Torah is a festive time.  Chabad seems more predictably festive.  And they have kids.  And they exude kindness, not out of obligation but from imprint.  I've never been treated poorly there.  It's the place for me to be as we approach the very end of our Holy Day season.