This has been an exciting and inspiring week at Maimonides School. On Tuesday our Early Childhood Center students enjoyed the privilege of visiting the sukkot of some of our local families. That afternoon, in preparation for Simchat Torah, we went into the S. Joseph Solomont Synagogue where Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Jaffe, Dean of Judaic Studies. opened the aron to show us the Torahs and let the students kiss them. One student went up, kissed a Torah, and spontaneously screamed “Amen!” Other students, not content to kiss only one, tried to kiss every Torah there. When Rabbi Jaffe unrolled a Torah to show us the words inside, one student excitedly yelled, “It’s just like the siddur!” Another student said, “That’s G-d’s word.” And a third said, “That’s the most holy thing in the world.” What beautiful neshamas our students have, and what love they display for our Torah and our heritage! I was awed by our youngest students’ natural ability to feel connected to Hashem, and impressed with Rabbi Jaffe’s wonderful ability to relate so meaningfully to our students on all levels. Yesterday our entire school joined together for a reenactment of what a simchat beit hashoeva might have been like in the Beit Hamikdash during Sukkot. The big kids and the little kids danced with each other, from 20 months old to 18 years old. The kindness, love, and joy the older students displayed to our youngest students and to each other was heartwarming to behold. There is a chassidic idea that while Yom Kippur focuses on serving Hashem through yirah, fear, Sukkot represents service through ahava, love. In the spirit of Sukkot, we hope that our students keep their love for Hashem and for each other alive and influencing them for years. When I see our students of all ages dancing and singing with joy on Sukkot, I know we are achieving our goal of inculcating that value. What an inspiration our students are, and what an absolute pleasure it is to work at Maimonides School! Moadim l’simcha and Shabbat shalom, Robin | 
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