In Parshat Bo, Shmot 10:8, Pharaoh asks Moshe who he would be taking to the desert to worship God.

Moshe’s answer is (10:9) “With our young and with our old we will go. With our sons and with our daughters, with our sheep and with our cattle, for it is a festival to God for all of us.” Pharaoh then suggests that only the adult men should go.

Yismach Moshe brings down the Gemara in Shabbat 119b, Rav Hamnuna said: Jerusalem was destroyed only because they diverted the schoolchildren (tinokot shel beit Raban) in it from their Torah studies.

The author of Prashat Derachim said that because of the merit of the schoolchildren, the Shechina, Divine Presence, rests on Israel. When the Shechina is present, no other nation can try to control them. When Pharaoh asked who was going, Moshe answered that the children as well as the elderly would be going since it is only truly a holiday when the children, the next generation is with us. Only when we are with the children will we have the Divine Presence resting upon us.

We can learn a lot about spirituality by simply watching the way that children can connect with God. The other day while we were driving in the car, my four year old son, Moshe looked out at the sky and began to have a conversation with God. How many times do we as adults wish that we could do that?

We learn from Parshat Bo that spiritual experiences- prayer, the celebration of the holidays etc., should be done as a community- where the young and old can all join together. If joining together as a community means that sometimes you will hear a baby cry during Shabbat services or children in costumes making a little bit of noise on Purim, don’t worry- it is because of the children that the Shechina will rest there (anyway the children are probably not making half as much noise as the two adults talking in the back row!).