Last year, Baltimore lost a giant, Rabbi Moshe Juravel zt”l. I had the zechus to write an article about him, which was warmly received. He inspired so many in various ways. In the article, I shared that before Pesach, Rabbi Juravel wanted to teach the boys about family minhagim and gave out a questionnaire for the boys to fill out. (Click on the graphics below for a larger, printable version.)
My brother, who was in his class, brought this home and my father excitedly filled it out. Years later, my other brother used this as a springboard to write a kunteres for our family of its minhagim, all from a handout to a fifth-grader!
In the opening, he writes: "To the parents of my talmidim. Yiddishkeit has survived the galus intact because of our ability to transmit the mesorah of our fathers to our children. To help you do this, I am sending you a list of minhagim having to do with Pesach, most of them regarding the seder. Having your son aware of these minhagim, with your help, will kindle his interest in keeping the minhagei Yisroel and especially those of his family. None of these are halacha. Whatever you do is correct. When your son grows and is ready to make his own seder, these papers will iy”H help him keep the family mesorah alive."
Last year and this, I have given these precious questions out to my class in Yeshiva K’tana of Waterbury with the hope that his rich mesorah continues. My hope is that by sharing these questions, others will be able to transmit their beautiful mesorah to their children, as Rabbi Juravel had always wanted.
Rabbi Heber can be reached via email at mdheber@ykwaterbury.org