About Chitas for Kids

Chitas for Kids is a project dedicated to enabling children (and adults too!) to learn in an easy, accessible way.

The primary components are easy-to-understand daily summaries of the daily shiurim in written and audio format, and a little coloring book with captions. These are emailed and sent via WhatsApp daily, and available in other formats (with some caveats) a week at a time for educators.

What subjects are covered?

1. Chumash: The story of the day's Chumash, primarily based on Rashi's interpretation, with occasional insights of the Rebbe. Emphasis is given to understanding the flow, not every detail is included.
2. Tehillim: This is usually a Chassidic insight into one of the pesukim of the daily Tehillim, or sometimes a historic background on one of the kapitelach. The goal is to provide familiarity and comfort with words of Tehillim, and the same pesukim are reviewed multiple times over the course of a year.
3. Tanya: The Tanya section is intended to explain the concepts in a simpler way, making them understandable and applicable even by children.
4. Hayom Yom: The hardest Hayom Yoms are the short ones! This section attempts to show the beauty and relevance of each Hayom Yom. Occasionally, background information on the original source of the Hayom Yom is provided for context.
5. Sefer Hamitzvos: The goal here is to make the definition of the daily mitzvah clear. Reference is often made to the Rambam, for example to understand why we learn the same mitzvah so many days in a row (because we are learning so many halachos about it in Rambam).
6. Rambam: As the daily mitzvah is often very terse, the daily Rambam (three perakim daily) is summarized as well. On most days, a main concept or interesting halacha from each perek is mentioned. The perek learned as part of the Perek Echad cycle (one perek per day) is included as well.
7. Darkei Hachassidus: This section was added to provide a place to mention specific horaos or insights of the Rebbe relevant to the time or daily shiurim, or for stories or general Chassidic concepts to be discussed.
8. Tefillah: The Tefillah section intends to provide context for tefillah, including the general concept of davening, the overall structure of tefillah, and how each paragraph adds to the davening. Occasionally, specific phrases are discussed as well.
9. Halacha: In halacha, the primary emphasis is on practical, relevant halachos. Sometimes these are part of a series (muktza, brachos), standalone halachos, or ones relevant to the time of year or another part of Chitas.
10. Geulah: This section is intended to fulfill the hora'ah of learning Inyonei Geulah U'Moshiach on a regular basis. This sometimes takes the form of learning a basic concept about Moshiach, seeing the Geulah connection in another part of Chitas or upcoming Yom Tov, or learning one of the many pesukim from Neviim and Kesuvim that speak about Moshiach.

Who is this intended for?

The original expected audience was Anash parents reading with their children, although many teenagers and adults of all backgrounds find the summaries helpful for themselves as well.

The language and explanations in the Chitas summaries are fairly simple, to make them accessible to children. Comfort with many Hebrew or Yiddish terms common in a Chabad household is assumed, and they are not always translated (a glossary is available).

As the original tagline goes, the project is "Chitas for Kids (and adults too!)"

When and how did Chitas for Kids start?

Chitas for Kids started in Parshas Noach, 5772, by a shliach and shlucha in a small town in the USA. It began as the "Chitas Curriculum" for a small group of young shluchim who needed an occasional extra-curricular learning program. It consisted of a little coloring booklet, and notes of some simple games or activities that related to the day's Chitas.

A few days later, they informally shared the booklet on the Shluchos Network to help other homeschooling mothers. The response was so enthusiastic that they began posting it daily to share with other shluchim.

To make it easy for mothers to teach the actual Chitas material, they began writing easy-to-read summaries of each part of Chitas and emailing them along with the booklets. Surprisingly, the summaries soon became more popular than the booklets themselves, and they were asked to forward the daily emails to a growing list.

At that point, the Chitas Curriculum became known as Chitas for Kids, and began growing in reach and scope. Shabbos and Sunday booklets began, and the additional pieces (Darkei Hachassidus, Tefillah, Halacha, and Geulah) were added over time.

Shluchim in Ashdod, Rabbi and Mrs. Friedman, offered to translate the Chitas summaries and booklets into Hebrew, and it is now emailed daily to a separate email list of nearly 1,000 subscribers.

Mrs. Tsiporah Chulsky of Paris began translating the booklets into French, l'ilui nishmas Rabbi Shmuel Azimov, and they are now used in educational institutions throughout France.

Inspired by Rabbi Zalman Glick, who dedicated it in honor of his son Zev Aryeh A"H, a daily audio version was added, beginning on Rosh Chodesh Sivan 5776. It is now linked in the daily email and sent out daily via WhatsApp.

Who makes Chitas for Kids?

Chitas for Kids is primarily a joint project of Rabbi Mendel and Nechama Dina Hecht of Cortland, New York. Most of the work is done in-house. The Hebrew and French translations are provided by the Friedmans of Ashdod and Mrs. Tsiporah Chulsky of France, respectively. (See credits on the bottom of the page for more)

Technical details