“RABBI’S MUSINGS (&
AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh
Parshas Shelach
22 Sivan 5777/ June 16,
2017 - Avos Perek 3
Mevorchim Chodesh Tamuz
Back in the days when "being on line" meant you
were in a store, and the web was something spiders wove, audio was recorded on
cassette tapes. I grew up in that archaic world. I still have dozens of tapes
containing recordings of schmoozen (Torah lectures) and shiurim from my years
in yeshiva.
Recently, I purchased a device to transfer the recordings as
MP3 files on my computer.
Aside from benefiting from the Torah thoughts shared my rabbeim, which I have largely forgotten, there is a great deal of nostalgia that I feel when listening to those lectures. I cannot help but remember where I was and at what stage of life I was, when hearing those lectures live over two decades ago.
Although we are still in denial that we are old enough to have a son heading to high school, our oldest son Shalom is graduating elementary school this week iyh. After the summer, he will enter Yeshiva Shaarei Torah, twenty years after his father graduated High School from there.
Aside from benefiting from the Torah thoughts shared my rabbeim, which I have largely forgotten, there is a great deal of nostalgia that I feel when listening to those lectures. I cannot help but remember where I was and at what stage of life I was, when hearing those lectures live over two decades ago.
Although we are still in denial that we are old enough to have a son heading to high school, our oldest son Shalom is graduating elementary school this week iyh. After the summer, he will enter Yeshiva Shaarei Torah, twenty years after his father graduated High School from there.
Two decades after leaving the yeshiva, a few of my classmates
have begun discussing the twenty-year reunion we planned before we graduated.
It's amazing to see how our lives have progressed. Each of us
have married and built families, chartering our own unique paths along the
roads of life. Some of my classmates have led lives exactly as we predicted
professionally and religiously. But there are a few who have shocked everyone,
perhaps mostly themselves. Had you told them two decades ago what they were
destined to accomplish, and who they would become, they would never have
believed you.
I have more than one classmate, who during our high school
years was not known for his diligence in learning, to say the least. Today they
are scholars of note, with numerous students of their own. [One classmate in
particular, has banned me from speaking to his children out of fear of the
recollections I may share.]
During hallel, we state the pasuk: "The stone which the
builders rejected, has become the cornerstone."
The commentators explain that Dovid Hamelech stated this
verse about himself. He was the "stone" that was spurned and
rejected, even by his own righteous father and brothers. They wrote him off as
a simple-minded shepherd, surely not one worthy of the monarchy. Dovid Hamelech
too, viewed himself in a similar vein, never daring to imagine the incredible
destiny that awaited him. The rejected stone became the cornerstone, the source
of strength for all eternity. "Dovid, king of Yisroel, alive and
enduring."
Whenever we recite Hallel in yeshiva (such as on Chanukah or
Rosh Chodesh) and recite the aforementioned verse, I look around at my students
and wonder to myself to which of them will these words apply to. Who will be
the student who will surprise us all by overcoming challenges and naysayers,
transforming himself into a leader and/or scholar?
Part of being a parent and an educator is to have this sense
of vision regarding our children. We must always be able to see beyond what the
child is now, and to see what the child can become. It is only once we have
that optimistic vision that we can hope to impart it to the child who may have
given up on himself.
Noted psychologist, Dr. Robert Brooks, notes that for a child
who struggles in school, the greatest thing you can give him is a sense of hope
that life can and will be ether. During their school years, a child believes
that school is a microcosm of life. He therefore often concludes that he will
always have the same challenges and struggles that he currently has. For many
children that sense of despondency is even worse than their academic struggles.
Conveying to a child that many successful adults struggled mightily in school,
and relating one’s own personal struggles, can be invaluable for the struggling
student.
Twenty years later, things are often very different than how
we expected, for good or for better.
Who better to serve as an example than Dovid Hamelech!
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos,
R’ Dani and Chani Staum