Teach Your Child... & Yourself...Priorities You shall teach them to your child to discuss them, while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise. (Second Portion of the Shema - Deuteronomy 11:19) In the last years of his life, Rabbi Yaakov David Wilowski (1845-1913), popularly known as the Ridvaz (an acronym of his name), lived in the holy city of Tzefas in Eretz Yisrael. Prior to that, he had been the Rabbi of Slutsk, Poland, and was considered one of the giants of his generation. One winter afternoon in Tzefas, on the day of his father's yahrtzeit, the Ridvaz came to shul earlier than usual before Mincha. He sat down and became lost in thought. Tears welled up in his eyes and slowly trickled down his cheeks. A close friend went up to him and said, “Reb Yaakov David, why are you so upset? Your father was eighty years old when he passed away, certainly not a youngster, and he died almost fifty years ago”. “I'll tell you,” said the Ridvaz; and this is the story that he related. When I was a young boy my father arranged for me to have the best teacher in our town, a certain Reb Chaim Sender, as a private tutor. He charged one ruble a month, which was a large sum of money in those days, especially for my parents who were very poor. It took quite an effort to put the money together every month. My father made his living building furnaces. One winter, business was very bad because there was a shortage of cement and lime. My father couldn't meet the payments to Reb Chaim Sender. Three months went by and still he had not paid the teacher. Then one day, I came home with a note from the teacher which said that if he did not get the money the next morning, he would be unable to continue teaching me. When my parents read the note they were devastated. To them, my Torah study meant everything. They felt that nothing should stand in the way of my becoming a Torah scholar. When my father went to shul that evening he heard a wealthy man complain that the contractors building a house for his son and future daughter in law could not get a furnace because of the cement and lime shortage. He offered six rubles to anyone who could get him a furnace. In Russia, a furnace was a vital household item, for it was used to both heat the home and cook the food. When he came home from shul, he discussed the matter with my mother and they agreed that my father should take apart our oven, brick by brick, and build a new one for the rich man. Then they would have the six rubles for my teacher. My father did just that and received the six rubles which he immediately gave me to pay Reb Chaim Sender. “Tell the teacher,” he said to me proudly, “three is for back pay, and the other three are for the next three months.” That winter it was bitterly cold and we all froze and shivered, but they sacrificed their personal comfort in order that I should have the best teacher and grow in Torah. The Ridvaz paused, took a breath and continued. “This afternoon it was cold outside and I thought that maybe I should arrange for a Minyan to come to my home instead of coming to shul. Then I decided that in honor of my father, I should make the extra effort to go to shul instead. When I came to shul, I thought about the self-sacrifice of my father and my whole family during that bitterly cold winter, just for me and my Torah learning. That's why I cried, because I remembered the boundless affection and devotion that only parents can have so that their child should learn our holy Torah.” What are the values that we are teaching our children? |