Taking My Son to Shul

This morning, my son and I were at shul together. This is not an unusual occurrence. My wife was not there because she is recovering from some minor foot surgery and needs to stay off of it. While she certainly does go to shul, there are a number of times she does not.

As for me, I am usually there and ever since my son was born, I try to take him with me. Since he was a preemie and his bris was delayed for a few weeks, he probably did not come with me until he was about a month old. Ever since that time, however, he has been with me more often than not.

He is getting to the point now where he does not want to automatically go, as used to be the case a few years ago. Still, frequently he does enjoy going and I enjoy taking him. I like taking him because he enjoys it. I like taking him because I enjoy spending time with him. I like taking him because I like to teach him about Judaism (and other things). now, I also get an added pleasure. I like taking him because I can hear him daven. Sing some prayers, say others, and not surprisingly some he does not know, but he really does like to follow along.

There are some things he seemed to enjoy as an infant when it came to shul more than he does now. He loved watching them lift the Torah for hagbah. He also loved seeing them take it out and enjoyed watching them read it. Now he likes other things about shul; the melodies, participating and following along. Of course, he still does like running around but he is now at the point where if he needs to step out for a moment, he can do so unsupervised.

When I take him to shul, I love all the things I mentioned before and I love the images it recalls of me pushing him in a stroller as an infant to get him there as well. My grandfather used to love watching people walk on Saturday afternoons. He said by the direction they were walking, how many and a bunch of other factors, you could figure out which shul they were at, which were families, which were friends, etc. I know he would have enjoyed watching me walk with my son.

If you have never, or seldom, taken your children to services, I strongly urge you to do it. It is a wonderful feeling, especially when you do it for a while and teach them to grow up with it and enjoy it.