The Cure and the Warning
From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease. Psalm 8:2 NASB
Established strength – According to Rabbi Munk, this verse teaches “that Israel’s protection from harm depends on the Torah study of its innocent children.”[1] Don’t dismiss his comment too quickly. It’s not a naïve religious view devoid of the realities of social engineering and politics. From a biblical perspective, everything depends on the education of the children. In fact, one could argue that the mess we see in the world today is the direct result of abandoning biblical education of the young.
Think about the bigger picture here. God is the creator of the universe (a ubiquitous assumption of the biblical worldview). As such, He is the sovereign Lord of all His creation, including all men and women. He established the proper order of the universe and built everything to work harmoniously according to that order. Then He revealed the human obligations of this inherent order to His children. His expectation is simple: follow the plan and things will work the way they are supposed to work. But we know better. So we create competitive models, opposing orders, “free” thinking plans. What is the result: utter chaos. We are working against the grain of the universe. What else did we expect?
If you knew that God put in place a simple plan for orderly existence, would you knowingly and deliberately teach something else to your children? Would you instruct them in ways that you knew would harm them, confuse them and cause them grief? What parent would be so callous? And yet, we do this all the time. We allow the human models to dictate our educational policies. We turn our children over to teachers who have no commitment to God’s ways. We send them to religious schools that teach them Torah doesn’t matter. What are we doing? Torah doesn’t matter! Are you kidding? Torah is God’s plan for order His way. Of course it matters. In fact, the world without Torah is precisely what Scripture tells us it will be—living hell. Chaos. Destruction. Idolatry. Exactly the opposite of God.
When I work in Central America, I am reminded of the statement by my friend, an ex-official of the Honduran government. “We cannot save this generation. It’s too late. But if we don’t start working on the next generation, everything will just repeat itself.” It’s too late, my friend, for us. Yes, we can repent. We can crawl back into God’s plan. We can start again. But if we don’t do something about those who are right now too young to know what’s ahead, it will all just repeat itself. Did you think things cannot get worse? See what happens when your children grow up with knowing what God demands. David understands. Yissadta oz – “You establish strength.” Not me. I don’t establish strength. I just obey. God builds on the next generation. What am I doing about that?
Topical Index: yasad, establish, oz, strength, education, generation, Psalm 8:2
I share this quote from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks; recently retired as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.
“So Jews became the only people in history to predicate their very survival on education. The most sacred duty of parents was to teach their children. Pesach itself became an ongoing seminar in the handing on of memory. Judaism became the religion whose heroes were teachers and whose passion was study and the life of the mind. The Mesopotamians built ziggurats. The Egyptians built pyramids. The Greeks built the Parthenon. The Romans built the Coliseum. Jews built schools. That is why they alone, of all the civilizations of the ancient world are still alive and strong, still continuing their ancestors’ vocation, their heritage intact and undiminished.”
For the complete article go to: http://www.rabbisacks.org/bo-5774-far-horizon/#.UsiTQ0gJz0k.twitter
Thank you Skip & Rod.
Thanks for sharing the article. It was nice to be able to listen to it, as well.
My children are still at home, so now the question is: How do I make/allow learning Torah sweet to them,…. today.
Skip,
This article’s arrival is most timely. Baruch HaShem.
This TW has acted as further stimulus for me. I really messed up much of my children’s youth via a divorce.
I can’t go back, but I can make a strong effort to move forward and speak of Godly things to them as we go
about life. They do seem to listen more now and I do get to be around my grandson regularly.
Regarding Munk’s book, I thought it was interesting about the method of teaching the sweetness of the Aleph-Beis
(alphabet) to the children was by letting them taste the honey that was dripped on each of the Hebrew letters as they were
taught giving the child’s first encounter with the sanctity of the written Hebrew language being a sweet one. After this,
a joyful party was given for the children making it a festive occasion of importance. This seems to be a good environment
in which to start a productive and fruitful learning experience constituting a real education.
Yes, what you say is true. What can we do when the world
Closes its ears to truth?
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/14/watch-this-high-school-seniors-epic-takedown-of-common-core-video/
What’s our role in God’s soverign plan?
To Obey? Absolutely.
To Teach? No question.
But the biggie is: To Bear Fruit.
Here’s how Jesus puts it:
“You did no choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you
that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should
remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may
give you. These things I command you, that you love one
another.” Jn 15:16-17
In Phil 1:21-26, Paul clearly chooses to bear fruit by loving
and sharing with others the revealed eternal values of knowing
Christ. His life spoke volumes!
We, too, are life- equipped to rescue worldly adults who darkly
worship power, pleasure, popularity and prestige — and share
the enlightened message we’ve been given that “whoever does not
receive the Kingdom of God as a little child will by no means
enter in.” Mk 10:15
We are to courageously exhibit our childlike faith in our day
to day lives. And we have lots of help!
Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides
in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do
nothing.” Jn 15:5
Home School!
Indeed…I am…do you have any suggestions for good resources/books for High School?
Most curricula are based on Greek thought…are there any Jewish?
Yes, there are Jewish home school books and they are used all the time in Jewish homes. Perhaps that’s why the rest of the world ignores them. Go to your closest synagogue and ask the rabbi for help. But the bottom line is the Bible is story and precept, line by line, with great insight. Today I talked with a friend whose five year old reads and is learning to program computers. If that is possible, then why not learn the Torah inside and out too.
It is my heart’s desire to teach the Truth to my children. My struggle has been in how to do that with my life having been filled with normal-well-adjusted-christian living and doctrine. How do I teach what I do not know? How do I teach a Hebraic worldview when what I know is Greek? I do my best to (re)learn right along with them. I fail frequently. Their ability to internalize YHWH’s truths while I struggle to “make things fit” continually amazes me. They learn while I have paradigm shifting revelations. We read Torah together and discuss the stories, the laws, the precepts. We read this blog together and discuss. We read Todd Bennett’s books (and others’) and discuss. We listen to “Rabbi Bob” and discuss. And we make changes. I feel like we’ve been drinking from a fire hose at a snail’s pace for years. And then, just the other day, my youngest said, “I’m so glad you and Daddy are learning all of this and are teaching it to us so *we* don’t have to start from scratch.”
By the way, hi, I haven’t commented here much though I’ve been reading the blog for a couple of years. I really enjoy the community here and how encouraging you all are to each other, and I hope to be able to participate more.
Makes it all worth while, doesn’t it?
Absolutely!!!
Again, off topic. BUT can anyone tell me if this is true or not true.
All rabbi’s needed to have a wife to be a Rabbi.
HOW APROPOS can you get? This hits the heart of the whole matter for me. I homeschooled before it was legal, before I knew the word. I saw established education as a soul killer. I had stiff opposition! When I went to defend myself, I decided to study education historically. What I saw shocked me. Every ‘civilization’ had forced public education, and it was religiously based: designed to inculcate a common ‘fear’ (religion) that could be used for the purposes of the State. Except one. Just one. When Moses was instructed about this subject, he was told to tell the people to teach their own children. I didn’t get it. They had been slaves in a foreign land for over a hundred years, at least. They were ignorant, and rebellious to boot. And the Presence was RIGHT THERE. G-d Himself could have taught those kids! And the parents never DID get it! They died in their ignorance! BUT, their kids came roaring out of that desert a lean, mean, fighting machine. A singular phenomenon for slaves in the entire history of the world. They did get it. How?
I have seen the same phenomenon in the homeschooling community. Uneducated, downright ignorant parents, many of whom never ‘get it’, either, yet their children do. It is a mystery. All I can say is that it must have to do with the fact that you have to somehow feel free to be able to take responsibility for your life. I read recently that the biggest factor in whether or not children are able to stand up to adversity was in how well they had a sense of identity, of belonging, to their past, their family. They knew where they came from. Also, I think knowledge gained at the heart level, for anyone, much more so a child, has to come from someone that has chewed it, DIGESTED IT, and transferred it directly. I did it, too, yet it still is a mystery to me. How children learn is so radically different than the model of ‘education’ the world has ever come up with. That is clear.
Thank you, Skip! Preach it!