In Parshas Mikeitz (41:56) we are told that a great famine fell upon the world. Yaakov saw that there was still food in Mitzrayim (42:1) and sent there all his sons, excluding Binyamin, to bring back food to Yaakov and his family in Eretz Yisroel. When the brothers reached Mitzrayim, they met Yosef. We will…
“Reuven was a ball of fire in class today,” explained the history teacher at the weekly teachers’ meeting. “He just couldn’t sit still.” “At least he wasn’t chutzpadick to you,” said the math teacher. “When I told him to write an assignment on the board he told me that he had better things to do.”…
The story in the Torah where Dina is defiled by Shechem is the classic case of a parent having a negative influence on his/her son/daughter without considering the consequence of his/her action. The posuk reads, "ותצא דינה בת לאה אשר ילדה ליעקב לראות בבנות הארץ" – "And Dina, the daughter of Leah, who was born…
Before a child can effectively tap into his potential in Torah learning and fulfillment, he needs to be guided and supported in his personal character development. Why? For character – middos – development is the control box of man’s Torah study and fulfillment. No matter how developed one’s mind is, if either his potential is…
"I know my son", said a defensive father, trying to explain to the principal his son’s version of a rumble between him and an older boy. "If there’s one thing he doesn’t do, it’s lie!" After thoroughly checking out the incident, the principal saw that the younger child’s version was not fully true. There were…
"Rules are made to be broken", says an old adage. In the context of child education, what does this saying mean? One of the fundamental responsibilities of a teacher and parent is to make rules, give guidelines and offer clear borders to children. This, in order to help each child use his abilities and characteristics…
To be a successful mechanech (teacher) two ingredients are essential: patience and support. Without patience, a student’s progress will never be able to match the tolerance level of his teacher; without support, whether psychological, emotional, academic, or other, the student will feel he either cannot succeed or that his success has limited or no value….
The Joy of Self-Accomplishment As we mentioned in the first two sections of our present topic, we can learn from Hashem’s Creation of the world how to educate our children and students and turn them into Bnei Torah. We find this concept mentioned explicitly in the Midrash (Bereishis 4:2),which says that the Creation of the…
A Teacher’s Humility and a Student’s Clarity "כתית למאור" – כתית refers to cutting and dividing which represents humility, while מאור refers to light and growth. The more humble a teacher is and the more he emphasizes not his understanding of the Torah, but that of his students, the greater his students will grow and…
The Value of Good Middos: A teacher of Torah has one goal in mind: that the Torah’s message should have an overriding influence in the class. However, this is only possible if the teacher has succeeded in developing a class atmosphere which emphasizes good Middos and fulfillment of Mitzvos. This we learn from Chazal’s explanation…