47 Boys Celebrate Hachanasa L’Cheder in LEC Miami

It was hard to tell who was more enthusiastic at the third annual Hachanasa L’Cheder – Arainfirnish ceremony at Miami’s Lubavitch Educational Center—the 47 boys, grinning as they licked honey off their Alef-Beis charts, their beaming fathers on whose laps they were sitting, or their mothers and grandparents glowing with nachas as they took in the adorable scene. “My son didn’t stop smiling the entire time,” says Mrs. Mindy Wolff, whose 4-year-old son Gavi participated. “It was just so beautiful.”

Each child had been joyfully carried in, wrapped in their father’s tallis. Each place around the table had been set with all the traditional items to be used in the ceremony: an egg with a possuk stamped on it, honey cake engraved with another possuk, the sha’ar blatt of Tanya on which the children pointed out the letter Alef, and even a yarmulka to decorate and keep them entertained during transitions. “They thought of everything!” says Mrs. Wolff.

Leading the boys and their fathers in the series of arainfirnish minhagim was LEC’s longtime and beloved mechanech Rabbi Yaakov Roth, who himself had once taught many of the gathered parents—including Mrs. Wolff—and has led generations of students through the rituals. “He never misses a detail on frumkeit and chassidishkeit,” she says. “He does everything right, according to the hora’os of the Rebbe. I was so happy he was there to do it with my son.”

It’s no coincidence that the Arainfirnish took place on yud alef Cheshvan, the yahrzeit of Rochel Imeinu. “Today, we emulate Rochel Imeinu by sacrificing for our children’s chinuch,” says LEC’s Preschool director, Mrs. Bina Rosenblum, who organized the event. “There are families here who drive more than an hour each way to get to LEC. And they would have it no other way. To receive a Chabad Chassidishe Chinuch, we start with the minhagim or our rebbeim that connects us to the traditions of the generations before us.”

Candy rained down on the heads of the ecstatic boys, (from Malach Michoel, they were told) and the event concluded with lebidige dancing as proud fathers lifted their sons on their shoulders. “This is their entry, the beginning of a lifelong journey of Yiddishe chinuch,” says Mrs. Rosenblum. “We all are proud to welcome them.”

LEC thanks Mrs. Bina Rosenblum, Ms. Shayna Bortunk, Mrs. Farah Rosenblat, and Mrs. Bella Schechter for organizing the event, and Rabbi & Mrs. Avremel Caroline, Rabbi & Mrs. Menachem Korf, Rabbi & Mrs. Yossi Wolff, and Mr. & Mrs. Yaakov Zaetz for sponsoring.