Halacha recommends bringing your children to synagogue and educating them to answer “amen” - for a child has a share in the world to come as soon as they begin answering “amen”. We find several examples where children were present, including at the Giving of the Torah and forty years later at the Covenant in the Plains of Moab. Similarly, regarding Hakhel, where the Torah orders everyone to assemble at the Temple, including “young children”, “in order to reward those who bring them” - hence the custom of bringing infants to synagogue. Likewise, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Hananiah’s* mother would bring him in his cradle to synagogue, so that his ears would become filled with words of Torah.
*A Tanna (Mishnaic sage) of the second generation, Levi who served in the Temple (Arachin 11b), and held the position of head of the Great Rabbinical Court (Baba Kama 74b). After his passing, wisdom and counsel disappeared with him (Sota 49b).
Sources: Tractate Hagiga 3a; Rama Orach Chayim 124:7, Alter Rebbe ibid. 10; Likutei Sichot, volume 29, page 536.
Reprinted from Shoneh Halachot, The Halachic Institute
