Students Fulfill Lulav Campaign

sun-sentinel

On Sept, 21, students from the Lubavitch Educational Center in Miami prepared for the holiday of Sukkot by building their own sets of the lulav and esrog, the species Jewish people need to do the blessing on the holiday.

The students also pledged to use them to go to the streets, malls, nursing homes and hospitals to help as many people as possible to perform the mitzvah of lulav and esrog.

“I’m proud of these children,” said Rabbi Yakov Garfinkel, the school’s program director. “To know that they’re going out there and giving up their free time and helping other people, especially those in serious need of if it, really makes the school super proud.”

Last year for the project, the students helped well more than 2,500 people perform the mitzvah, some for the fist time in their lives, and the school got at least 80 percent full participation from the student body. This year, the students have pledged to double the numbers and reach 5,000 as the school expects a much higher percentage of full participation for student body than last year.

Garfinkel said that so far, a group of children went to Mount Sinai Hospital and that the students are teaching their parents about the message they’re learning.

“I’ve already gotten e-mails with pictures of children helping out others during the holiday,” Garfinkel added.

Rabbi Benzion Korf, the head of the school, also commented on the children’s participation.

“It’s a feeling that hopefully we’re preparing this group of students to be the future leaders of the Jewish people,” he said. “This is a continuing effect. It’s not just for one day or for this moment. It will affect hundreds of thousands of people in the next generation.”

Mendy Catan, a fifth grade student at the school, said about the project, “It’s exciting. You get to do a lot of stuff and you do a good deed every time you do it.”

Mendy Rudd, a third grade student whose been to Mount Sinai several times to visit for the project, has helped his parents with it and they in return are excited that he really wants to spend a few hours at the hospital during his free time. When asked how this project will help him become a better leader in the future, Mendy responded, “I think that since I’m learning now, it’s going to help me because at first I really didn’t know what to do and now I do.”