NCSY Fall Convention Story #2

I go to shul for a lot of reasons, but one is that I like to look down on a sea of tallaisim.  The guys don’t interest me.  It’s the scene that counts.  I love the boys club.  We women, we lunch.  But the guys?  Well.

Yesterday I took off for shul well before the NCSY kids were even thinking of getting out of bed, and made it for kiddusha shachris.  I caught up on the davening and before breaking out of my trance (who knows what I was thinking about, not likely the words) the guys downstairs were doing krias Torah.

A kid with Down Syndrome had an aliyah.  You don’t see that every day.  There was another kid behind him, giving him chizuk (emotional strength).  These boys were about 14.  The bracha was perfect and beautiful.  The one with special needs turned to his friend and the two of them embraced.

And they didn’t let go.  It was clearly one of the best moments in both of their lives.

Not a dry eye. . .

zachdus

NCSY Fall Chicago Convention-1st story

Really it’s the second.

But quickly, because I have to get the kids back to shul tonight to catch the bus so that they can go to ESPN Zone  for “interactive video games and dozens of sporting events on tv.”  This is code for “Judaism is fun.”

They told the girls (n = 8 at my house, K”H; N = 250 teenagers in all) that on Friday they would get to go to the Magnificent Mile (North Michigan Avenue) to shop Nikitown, Disney, American Doll, and Hershey.

So I went to work.

When I got home, around 2:00 pm, I remembered that I needed a gift for a shower that I wouldn’t make on Sunday (some of us work) so I did a quick turn around to go to Target. It’s erev Shabbas and I’m in a hurry, but 0n my way down the front steps the girls waved, walking up the sidewalk.  They had returned from their shopping trip.   No one carried a single bag.

“Hey,” I shouted.  “Anyone want to go to Target?”  They jumped up and screamed, “I do! I do!”

And away we go.  A total success, a feel-good, this another way to have fun, National Council of Synagogue Youth afternoon in Chi-town.

we’re frugal but happy,

therapydoc