Thursday, December 26, 2013
Parshas Vaera: Educating our Children: They don't grow up by themselves
10:36 PM | 
Posted by
Rabbi Chaim Coffman |
"And Amram took him Yocheved his father's sister as a wife and she gave birth to Aharon and Moshe and the years of the life of Amram were one hundred and thirty-seven years" (Exodus 6:20).
Rav Moshe Feinstein z"l in Derash Moshe asks why does the Torah not mention the names of Moshe's father and mother until it was known that he would redeem the Jewish people and take them out of Egypt?
The reason Rav Moshe explains is that one should not overly praise their son even if he has tremendous ability to succeed in spiritual endeavors.
This means that even if after he was born and filled the entire house with light, nonetheless a person shouldn't say 'since my son does all these good things, I don't have to look after him with his education, he will learn it all anyway!' This is a mistake that may people make that when seeing their children go in the right direction with regards to Torah and mitzvos, they think that they will continue on their path easily without having to continually educate them!
Just the opposite is true. The greater the person becomes in learning and Torah observance, the more the evil inclination wants to snare him and stop them from reaching high spiritual goals. The evil inclination would want nothing more to see this genius fail and not reach their full potential!
Therefore it is incumbent on the parents to educate them even more, keeping this strong connection insuring that the child continues to go in the right direction. At the same time, prayer always helps that G-d should give us the ability to help our kids grow spiritually as much as possible.
There is the story with the Steipler Gaon, Rav Yisrael Yaakov Kanievsky z"l who would pray three times a day that his son Chaim would go in the path of the Torah and mitzvos. This was well after Rav Chaim was a great Torah scholar himself!
Yes we should learn with our children and instill in them the ability to succeed. Even if they are going in the right path and doing the right thing, it does not exempt the parents from continuing to educate them. The evil inclination is very strong and has many ways to get people to make mistakes and veer off the right track.
Parents today are at a tremendous disadvantage trying to fight the onslaught of secular society. We pray that our children continue in the path of their forefathers to strive in Torah and to love Torah. This is certainly not an easy task today but with G-d's help, every Jewish child gets what they need to be worthy servants of G-d!
Shabbat Shalom
Rav Moshe Feinstein z"l in Derash Moshe asks why does the Torah not mention the names of Moshe's father and mother until it was known that he would redeem the Jewish people and take them out of Egypt?
The reason Rav Moshe explains is that one should not overly praise their son even if he has tremendous ability to succeed in spiritual endeavors.
This means that even if after he was born and filled the entire house with light, nonetheless a person shouldn't say 'since my son does all these good things, I don't have to look after him with his education, he will learn it all anyway!' This is a mistake that may people make that when seeing their children go in the right direction with regards to Torah and mitzvos, they think that they will continue on their path easily without having to continually educate them!
Just the opposite is true. The greater the person becomes in learning and Torah observance, the more the evil inclination wants to snare him and stop them from reaching high spiritual goals. The evil inclination would want nothing more to see this genius fail and not reach their full potential!
Therefore it is incumbent on the parents to educate them even more, keeping this strong connection insuring that the child continues to go in the right direction. At the same time, prayer always helps that G-d should give us the ability to help our kids grow spiritually as much as possible.
There is the story with the Steipler Gaon, Rav Yisrael Yaakov Kanievsky z"l who would pray three times a day that his son Chaim would go in the path of the Torah and mitzvos. This was well after Rav Chaim was a great Torah scholar himself!
Yes we should learn with our children and instill in them the ability to succeed. Even if they are going in the right path and doing the right thing, it does not exempt the parents from continuing to educate them. The evil inclination is very strong and has many ways to get people to make mistakes and veer off the right track.
Parents today are at a tremendous disadvantage trying to fight the onslaught of secular society. We pray that our children continue in the path of their forefathers to strive in Torah and to love Torah. This is certainly not an easy task today but with G-d's help, every Jewish child gets what they need to be worthy servants of G-d!
Shabbat Shalom
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