LIFE - Learning Is Forever Exciting

Why do people spend more time working on their business than their children? People go to school for years in order to make money, but don’t spend nearly as much time trying to figure out how to best raise their kids. People tell me that they need to work all those hours in order for their kids to have what they didn’t. Being able to provide for your children is a wonderful thing, but it shouldn't be at the expense of their education.

Of course having money is very helpful. You can raise your children with a life that you didn’t have. I think the Jews coming from Europe to America after the Holocaust had this goal in mind. They succeeded. Our generation is much wealthier than that generation.

I have the same goal. I want to raise my children with a better life than I had. I think every parent, not that I would know yet, hopes their children will surpass them. They want them to become better people than they were and continue the tradition of the family in a positive light.

A friend of mine from Michigan came to Israel on a weeklong trip. We were talking about how he wants to figure out where he stands on certain issues. Since he wants to raise a family with normal (definition: people who can think for themselves and don’t get caught up in what their friends are doing) children, he decided he should plan for it. He decided to stay for 3 months in yeshiva. I remember him saying that he wasn’t coming for religion; he was coming to look into his past and see what he wanted to take out of it. What he wanted to pass on to his children. I don’t know if he will become religious, that’s not the point of his trip here. He is just simply spending time trying to figure out who he is. Answering questions about his past. Trying to lock into the chain of the Jewish people in order to pass something on to his children. Educating himself about life.

I think too many of us lose who we are because of money. Money cannot explain a child’s past to him; it can only prepare him for his future. Our children need to know about their past. I remember seeing older people when I was younger with numbers tattooed on their arms, a sign of what hell they had to go through because they were Jews. Now the only tattoos I see are the ones my friends have, with Hebrew letters, proudly proclaiming, “I am a Jew.” So proud, yet so misguided. If the older generations could see us now they would be speechless. Where did we go wrong? I think the answer is obvious for anyone who cares to look. Even the head of the Reform movement is calling for a return to Shabbat observance!

My parents named me Noah after my great-grandfather. He has had an amazing impact in my life even though I never met him. I still have his tefillin. When I had my bar-mitzvah I read parshat Noah from the Torah. I remember my father talking about how he was looking down at me and watching me from heaven, how he was so proud of me. I truly believe he was proud of me then, and he is still proud of me now. The Torah relates the story of the flood in that parsha. How God destroyed the whole world except for Noah and his family because everyone else was going against his will. I see the same thing happening now. I am watching the destruction of the Jewish people as a result of a lack of education. It’s ironic for the Jewish people, the people of the Book, to have lost more Jews than we did in the Holocaust to a lack of education. When we look back at the mid to late 1900’s, we will call it the silent Holocaust.

I don’t want to upset anybody by this post. It is not my intention. I just thought you would like to know why I am doing what I am doing. It’s simple to me. Being connected to my past will be a better life for me than having a lot of money. I want to be successful just like everyone else, but my measure of success is how good of a father I can be, how good of a person I can be, not how many toys I can buy for my children.

Obviously being a good father will also require having money. It’s a hard balancing act to try to figure out how much time to spend providing for your kids physical needs and how much time to spend on their Jewish needs. I think it’s important for every Jewish person to know where he or she comes from so they can pass on to their children their beautiful heritage. That’s what I am spending time doing. I am learning abut how to teach my children who they are instead of knowing only how to provide them with money.