This past Succos, the students at Cheder enjoyed spending time with their families, and doing all the special mitzvos of the holiday. The Cheder students also did something extra on chol hamoed (the “intermediate” days of the festival) – they put their learning into practice by going out and helping other Jews to learn about the holiday of Succos and to practice the special mitzvos of this time period.
Some went with their families; some went in small groups.
They took along sets of the four species – a palm branch, a myrtle branch, a willow branch, and an esrog fruit.
When they found someone Jewish who had not yet made the blessing and shaken the four species, as is done during Succos, they invited them to use this set – explaining the procedure and some of what they had learned in Cheder about the mitzvah.
You may have seen some Cheder students on the Chabad of Illinois Succah-Mobile, a small truck-mounted succah which goes around to different places. The students were able to help people make the blessing on dwelling in the succah and share lots of great information about Succos with the people they met.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe taught that even a single mitzvah performed by a Jewish person has a significant positive effect – on that individual, on the Jewish people collectively, and on the spiritual universe as a whole.
The boys and girls of Cheder Lubavitch took this lesson to heart and did a great job of reaching out to other Jews and sharing their knowledge and their enthusiasm for the holiday.