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http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
LAST NIGHT, for the first time ever, I studied Torah with my son.
For years I had dreamed of the moment. I was helping my seven-year-old
with his second-grade homework, and, together, we read and translated
the Hebrew words from his Chumash, or Bible.
Both Josh and I only started learning Hebrew about a year ago, and the dream
that came true last night was not only mine but one of his too.
Ever since we started attending synagogue on a regular basis, Josh has been
fascinated with "reading from the Torah." And ever since some relatives gave
him a paper replica of a Torah-scroll, my son has longed to be able to read
it.
As a surprise, when his homework was done, I brought him the scroll, rolled
it to the verses we had been studying, and asked him to read from it and
translate what he had read. He did, and with such excitement he could barely
contain himself. As a parent, I felt his joy vicariously - and, I think,
even more intensely.
My daughter Eliana, in kindergarten, is in many ways already ahead of me.
She reported to my wife and me that she had learned in school about the
mitzvah of hashavas aveidah --- she was kind enough to translate the term for
us ("returning lost objects" to their owners). She's learning not only
mitzvas but middos (proper behavior) from each weekly Torah portion, things
like the importance of being thankful, respecting one's parents --- in
general, precisely the kind of values that we do teach at home, but which
need reinforcing at school. The kind that we can only wish our public
schools can teach.
And, for both of them, reading Hebrew is as easy as reading English. And why
shouldn't it be? They were taught a "B" and a "Beis" at the same time. A new
letter is a new letter, and, at that young age, everything is new. In one
year, my son, academically average, learned four alphabets (upper and lower
case English, Hebrew block, and Hebrew script) without problem and now reads
them all just as well as any average seven-year-old can read English.
So what is someone like me, a person who, for most of his life, has wavered
between being staunchly Reform, and staunchly secular/ethnic Jew, doing
sending my kids to an Orthodox Jewish day school?
Well, for one, I am determined that they get the Jewish education I never
received. Secondly, I am determined that they learn values and ethics that
they won't likely learn in a public school. Thirdly, I am determined that
they not get "burned out" on Judaism by having to spend precious play time
in a Sunday school or in an after-school Hebrew program.
Many of my friends and relatives wonder if my kids are being deprived of a
"multi-cultural" consciousness, and if, as they get older, they will be able
to "fit in" to the larger American society. My answer to them is quite
simple: hey, if you live in America, you are exposed to American culture,
whether you like it or not. My children hardly lead insulated lives; they
learned to skateboard from the Catholic kid next door. My son's into The
Phantom Menace; my daughter, Toy Story (I and II) and both are avid fans of
A Bug's Life, among other contemporary offerings.
But any loss born of lack of exposure to all that American society has to
offer (much of it, in any event, hardly healthful) is more than outweighed
in my mind with what my children have to gain from receiving a strong Jewish
education. I often think about how many Jewish adults today feel reluctant
to go to a synagogue because of the hard time they have figuring out what's
going on. Until two years ago, that huge group included me (and I still get
lost occasionally!). One of the reasons I never once visited the Hillel at
my college was that I feared my lack of Jewish knowledge would be exposed.
That four-year separation from my Jewish religious heritage all too easily
stretched into 10 years, and I was ever-so-close to dropping out of Jewish
identity completely. I don't want that to happen to my kids. No way.
An extra bonus of my children's Jewish education is that, by playing my
parent's role as homework-helper, I myself am getting the Jewish education I
never had. In two years Joshua will be reading Mishna in the original
Hebrew -- and I hope I will be doing the same.
And then there are the ethics. Even if responsible Jewish parents teach
their children the Jewish way -- that "returning lost objects" is a mitzvah,
that "lashon hara", even truthful hurtful speech, is a sin -- how great can
their influence be when their kids spend most of their waking hours at
school (where the ethical model considers "finders keepers" and "dissing" an
acceptable social convention)?
Josh is blessed, moreover, with a fabulous Jewish studies teacher. This
young dynamic, enthusiastic "rebbe" thinks nothing of standing on his desk
to make a point, or pacing off 300 "arm-breadths" at recess to demonstrate
how long Noah's ark was. He pointedly plays with the kids during recess in
order to use the playground to inculcate Jewish ethics and values in his
charges. It's all part of the Jewish educational process, he says.
And as far as the school's secular studies are concerned, not only did my
careful comparison with the public school curriculum show them to be right
on grade level but the yeshiva high school into which the day school "feeds"
offers a broad assortment of impressive advanced placement secular studies
courses. I now understand why Jewish day school graduates seem to succeed
in such high proportions in higher secular education.
Some of my friends chide me for my educational choice, and claim that they
send their own children to public schools in order to "support public
education." But my tax dollars support public education as much as theirs
do. As a matter of fact, since I'm not utilizing the public school system's
services, my support of the system is arguably even greater. The point, in
the end, though, is moot. I would never sacrifice what I consider the best
interests of my children in order to make a political statement -- and doubt
that my friends would either. They just don't realize how much a Jewish
education could benefit their kids.
Why so many Jews think that Jewish day school is only for the Orthodox is
beyond me. If non-Orthodox Jews care so much about "informed choice", isn't
providing their young with a Jewish education the best way to keep them
informed, to be in a position to make rational choices about their Jewish
futures? As the wife of a local Conservative rabbi put it at a board
meeting, if we want our kids to be seriously knowledgeable about their
Jewish heritage, they have to at very least be able to read Jewish texts in
their original language, because all translation is interpretation. And in
any event, well over 90% of the important Jewish texts have never even been
translated out of Hebrew.
Where I live, in Northern Virginia, it seems that almost every Orthodox
child attends a Jewish day school, but no more than 5% of children from
Conservative families, and only a handful of children from Reform
backgrounds.
What is interesting, though, is that the overwhelming majority of local
rabbis -- and that includes the two Orthodox rabbis, and many more
Conservative and Reform rabbis, even the rabbi of a non-denominational gay
and lesbian synagogue -- do send their children to Day School .
Do they know something most other Jews
Jewish World Review Oct. 20, 2000 / 21 Tishrei 5761
The joy of Torah study
and the rabbis’ secret
By Eric Simon
Eric Simon, who served as a UAHC Regional Board member and as a member of
the Executive Committee of the UAHC Commission on Synagogue Affiliation, is
currently active in Jewish outreach and educational activities in Northern
Virginia. You may comment by clicking here.
