Chabad centers in 50 states expect to host as many as 50,000 children for the services, with many more adults present as well, Chabad.org reports.
A surge is expected in part because kids are out of school for the weekend and free to go—or already slated to attend Chabad Hebrew school in their communities.
They will be attending services and special readings of the Ten Commandments on Sunday, the first day of Shavuos, which celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Typically, the celebration followed with a dairy meal.
International statistics are harder to come by, but with Chabad centers operating in 100 countries worldwide, the numbers are presumed to be in the hundreds of thousands, Chabad.org said.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe explained that there is a special significance to bringing children, even the youngest of infants, to hear the Ten Commandments on Shavuos morning.
Before G‑d gave the Torah to the Jewish people, says the Midrash, He demanded guarantors. The Jews made a number of suggestions, all rejected by G‑d, until they declared: “Our children will be our guarantors that we will cherish and observe the Torah.”
G‑d immediately accepted them and agreed to give the Torah.
“By listening to the Ten Commandments on Shavuot morning,” the Rebbe explained to a pre-Shavuot children’s gathering in 1980, “the words of Torah will be engraved in the hearts and minds of the children. And through them, the Torah will be etched within their parents and grandparents with even greater intensity. Thus, the Ten Commandments, which include within them the entire Torah, will become a part of our lives throughout the entire year.”
In one early advertising pamphlet from 5739 (June 1979), the Lubavitch Youth Organization in New York urged “particularly children” to take part in the study of Torah and giving charity.
“Educators should see to it that those in their care, as well as children who as yet receive no formal Jewish education, should be encouraged in the above,” read “a message from the Lubavitcher Rebbe.”
The family of Rabbi Dovid Raskin OBM, the late chairman of the Lubavitch Youth Organization (Tzach), has included this and other promotional material for Shavuos in his upcoming biography.
That included an ad in the Yiddish newspaper Algemeiner Journal with the title “A call to all Jews! Men, Women and Especially Children!” alongside a photo of the Rebbe.
This year, Shluchim around the world have been using email and social media to invite Jewish people from all walks of life to hear the Aseres Hadibros this Sunday.
The group of shluchim at the Yeshiva Gedola Lubavitch in London’s Golders Green has arranged for 2 giant street billboards to invite the public to celebrate Shavuos. This project was coordinated by Reb Avrohom Weisz and Mr. Stephen Lever.
From then and now, the wish remains “Kabolas haTorah b’simcha ub’pnimiyus” (may we receive the Torah with joy and inspiration).
