In about the middle of the amud, Abaye articulates a principle about when to educate children for mitzvot. He states "If an adult is obligated to do a mitzva d'oraita, then there is a mitzva d'rabanan to teach your child how to do that mitzva." Despite the seifa of this statement (which states the converse), it seems that this is a nice rule of thumb for teaching children how to do mitzvot. By doing mitzvot as a family, they take on additional emotional meaning. It is what an observant community is based on.
What does the child learn about putting on tefillin if the parent does not do it with them? Or what does it say about prayer and learning if the child is dropped off at shul Shabbat morning and picked up at the end of services? Judaism must be a family project.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
As an educator struggling for parental suppport, I couldn't agree more. I recently heard a rabbi bemoan the "failure of hebrew schools" in the community (country?), a common refrain these days. But when I pushed him it became clear that the Hebrew school there had fulfilled its goals--kids learned to read Hebrew, gained synagogue skills, and had fun with their friends. The failure came at the communal and family levels--there was no effort to ensure that families continued bringing their kids after b'nei mitzvah, no effort to offer significant adult ed classes to complement the kids' learning, no effort to give parents the tools to reinforce what the hebrew school was doing. Without parental support, Jewish ed can be an excercise in futility.
Post a Comment