Eleven years of training Megilah readers for chesed

 Once again, on Purim Day, as for the past 10 years, the students of the Middle School of the North Shore Hebrew Academy (NSHA), of Great Neck, Long Island, will be present on a mandatory day of attendance. However, they will be attending willingly and enthusiastically and many will be accompanied by their parents and siblings. Twenty-three boys, from the 7th and 8th grades, will chant their respective portions of Megillat Esther for their fellow students and faculty so that all will fulfill the Mitzvah of Kriat Megillah. 

    

Dr. Paul Brody has often davened in the morning with the Middle School, which gives him the opportunity to hear many students chant the various Torah portions on Mondays and Thursdays.

Besides this year’s 23 students, Dr. Brody has taught the melody and cantillation of  Megillat Esther to approximately 150 students during the past 11 years, putting into fruition a plan conceived by Rabbi Dr. Michael Reichel who was then the principal of the Middle School. 

This student-led Megillah reading tradition has been continued under the guiding hand of the current Middle School Principal, Rabbi Jeffrey Kobrin and Assistant Principal, Rabbi Adam Acobas, - with the blessings of the NSHA Dean, Rabbi Yeshayahu Greenfeld - who help to coordinate the schedule with Dr. Brody. The Megillah readers are comprised of both Ashkenazic and Sephardic students and each student reads using the melody of his own tradition. The students meet with Dr. Brody to practice their newly learned skills.

Brody is embarking upon his 40th year of reciting the Megillah.  He vividly remembers the first time he read the Megillah at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, led by Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, where he grew up. He remembers being most grateful that he didn't have to fast that day, since this initial reading fell on a Saturday evening.  He is looking forward to reading this year

at his shul, the Great Neck Synagogue, for

the 17th year.