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Thursday

י"ח אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

Thursday
י"ח אדר ב’ התשפ"ד

חיפוש בארכיון

280. Teachers of children

Teachers of children who conduct themselves faithfully, have a wonderful portion, as about them it says “Ant those who give knowledge will shine like the sky!”. However, this needs much exertion to toil from morning until evening, so that they should not be relaxed in their work.

Learning Torah together with the ways of life is good, and the path of life is rebukes of ethics. It is therefore correct tom teach the students all the laws of the way of life, and all the reasons for the commandments, and to teach them to become fluent and used to leading the prayers, and to make the blessings for a groom, a mourner, or a host etc. They should move in stages up the ladder of topics to learn, for ascending without stages is a recipe for failure. The teachers should not listen to the fathers who want their sons to ascend immediately to learn Gemara, for a house without a foundation will be knocked over by the wind.

The eyes of the teacher must be open and watching over the students to distance them from all sin and bad behavior, so that they should be complete in every aspect of their behavior and have the right character traits. They should especially be people with shame who are careful to respect everybody. He should lead them with the characteristics of a wise man and distance them from the characteristics of a robot. He should pour his heart out in front of Hashem that He should help him so that the fruit of his labors should be something to be proud of, and with this he will have fulfilled his obligation to heaven and the creatures, and they will say “Fortunate is he who raised these holy children!”. He must always be fair, and not have any favorites, and be careful about the children of paupers as from them Torah will come out.

People should not worry about the expenditure they have to spend on teachers, as the commandment of teaching children is greater than building the holy temple, and it is fitting to shield from all pain and distress, and to give blessing.

“My brothers and my nation, take this sefer Torah, and with this, and like this learn well, so that you should have it good; listen and enliven your soul, and achieve gladness and joy in this world and the world to come” (From the author’s intro.)