The Maggid of Melbourne: Hakhel — Should we Bring Children to Shul?

Introduction

Discussing the unique commandment of Hakhel, Levi Cooper ponders the challenge of bringing children to Shul. How do we balance the need to maintain synagogue atmosphere and our desire to give our children lasting experiences?


The Maggid of Melbourne is an ongoing series by Rabbi Dr. Levi Cooper – teacher of Hasidut, community rabbi, lawyer, IDF reservist, father to six and native Australian – in which he shares some short Torah ideas on topics of current interest from his Pardes classroom, his research and from his shul in Zur Hadassa. To the Beit Midrash!

See www.elmad.pardes.org/maggidofmelbourne for more episodes in the series.

Levi Cooper

Dr. Levi Cooper is Senior Faculty at Pardes, teaching Jewish Law and Hasidut. He holds an LL.B., LL.M. and Ph.D from Bar-Ilan University, where he currently teaches in their Faculty of Law. Levi has been awarded multiple post-doctoral research grants, held academic visitor and educational advisory roles in Europe and Asia, and written extensively for academic publications.

Known as the Maggid of Melbourne, Levi hails from Australia. He currently lives in Zur Hadassa, where he has served as rabbi since 2005, co-founded the Lavi Primary School, and spearheaded other communal initiatives.