Boy Organizes Birthday Shabbaton

By COLlive reporter

Chabad chassidim around the world have spent this past Shabbos in preparation for the holy day of Yud Shevat, yartzeit of the Frierdiker Rebbe and the day the Rebbe accepted leadership of Chabad-Lubavitch.

For one boy in Illinois, Shabbos was also his 11th birthday and he decided to combine both occasions.

In a move befitting a young chossid, Levi Moscowitz extended an invitation to his 5th grade classmates at Seymour J. Abrams Cheder Lubavitch Hebrew Day School in Skokie to spend Shabbos with him.

Moscowitz’s birthday was going to be on Shabbos day, 8th of Shevat, and he decided that it would only be worthy to celebrate the Shabbos before Yud Shevat with his friends in a Shlichus environment.

He soon got permission from his parents, Rabbi Yosef and Sara Moscowitz, who head Bucktown Wicker Park Chabad Jewish Center in Chicago, and together they planned a special Shabbos.

Starting Friday afternoon, the friends waited outside Cheder Lubavitch dressed in their Shabbos finest. Picking them up was Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois’ oversized, colorful mitzvah tank led by activist and Tankist Rabbi Odom Epstein.

Together, they went to Bucktown’s famous Six-Corners and hopped out to ask passersby if they were Jewish. They helped Jewish men put on Tefillin. To Jewish women, they handed out Shabbos lighting kits designed in honor of Levi Moscowitz’s grandfather, Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz obm, the late Head Shliach of Illinois.

The boys then came to Moscowitz’s Chabad center which is also known as “The Living Room,” where they got ready for Shabbos. They helped prepare the center to host over 100 young professionals for a Friday night meal.

Levi’s father, Rabbi Yosef Moscowitz, who is Executive Director of Chabad of Illinois, explained to the boys that indeed, “every chossid is a shliach, and has a responsibility to inspire all those he encounters.”

And inspire they did.

They recited Kabbolas Shabos davening with excitement and later interrupted their own Shabbos meal on the third floor of the Chabad center to treat the 100-plus guests with a beautiful choir.

“The boys clearly were the epitome of a dugma chayah and had a strong impact on the Chabad House crowd, who were fascinated by them,” Shlucha Sara Moscowitz told COLlive.com.

On Shabbos morning, the boys woke up early to study Chassidus and reviewed a prepared booklet on which they were tested and won prizes. They later once again davened with spirit and had a strong impact on the community.

“Throughout the day, many community members commented about the achdus and maturity of the class and what a brochah it is to be raised in a Chabad home,” Mrs. Moscowitz noted.

On Motzoei Shabbos, the boys left on a spiritual high as they were treated to an inflatable jumping castle after havdalah, and memories that will surely keep their spirits high for years to come.