Parshas Emor, Lag BaOmer 5783 - Cautioning Adults Regarding Children, Chinuch With Light and Warmth

00:01 We want to talk about education: the education of Jewish children, of those who are young—whether young in years or young in understanding. This is a theme of the weekly parsha, Parshas Emor. The parsha opens with the subject of education, as Rashi says about the words “Speak to the kohanim and say to them”: “‘Speak’ and ‘say’—to charge the adults concerning the children.” From these opening words we learn that adults have the responsibility and obligation to instruct and educate the young. Here the subject is the laws concerning kohanim: the adults must instruct and guide the young kohanim, and ensure that they, too, conduct themselves with holiness and purity, as discussed in the parsha. We want to discuss education in connection with the weekly parsha and these words of Rashi. In particular, as Chassidus emphasizes, we can learn from here fundamental principles about educating Jewish children in general, including several principles especially relevant to our times. This is also connected with Lag BaOmer, since [?] Parshas Emor always falls close to this Yom Tov, the holy day of Lag BaOmer, the days of rejoicing of [unclear]. And there is a story about a chossid from the previous generation, a chossid whose name was

02:27 Reb Yisroel Levin, whom the chassidim used to call Reb Yisroel Neveler. Reb Yisroel Neveler, Reb Yisroel Levin, studied as a young man at the Tomchei Temimim yeshiva in Lubavitch. He was one of the outstanding Temimim: a diligent student, a Torah scholar, a chossid, and a young man with a chassidic spirit. In later years, he was among the great chassidim who showed self-sacrifice in Russia. He devoted his entire life to educating Jewish children. He was a teacher who taught Jewish children in Russia, precisely in the most difficult times, when education entailed actual self-sacrifice, as everyone knows. Under the Communists, in those difficult days, providing a Jewish education was extremely hard. He pursued it and taught by every possible means, through fire and water, and was a well-known teacher in Russia in those years. Chassidim relate that for a time he lived in the city of Kremenchuk. There was a wealthy chassidic family there, the Gourary family, a distinguished family with an illustrious lineage. They brought him to Kremenchuk especially to teach their children and grandchildren, and of course other children from the city as well. At that time, while he was teaching, the classroom included

04:07 several children from the city, from different kinds of families. There were children from wealthy families and children from simple, poor families. Naturally, differences between them were apparent in various ways: in their clothing, and in the fact that some had food to eat while others did not. The difference was very noticeable. One difference was that each of the children from wealthy families had the books needed in cheder—a Chumash and a siddur—while the children from poor families did not. So they had to sit together and share a book, arranging things so that everyone could learn. Reb Yisroel Neveler, the teacher, arranged the seating so that a child with a Chumash would sit next to a child without one, and they could look at it together. Once, in the middle of studying Chumash in Parshas Bereishis, Reb Yisroel noticed that one of the children had trouble sitting next to a child from a poor family. He did not feel comfortable, as though it was beneath his dignity. He noticed [unclear] how the children [unclear], how, how he felt about it.

05:37 He did not want to let the other child look in his Chumash. There was a bit of a divide between the children, but Reb Yisroel, the teacher, noticed this behavior. They began studying Chumash Bereishis. The teacher gave him a Chumash and told him to begin learning the verse and explaining it, starting with the first verse: “In the beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.” Reb Yisroel told the child, “Yes, now learn the verse and explain it.” The student began with “In the beginning,” and immediately translated it into Yiddish: “In the beginning” [unclear]. The teacher stopped him and said, “No, you’ve made a mistake.” The child was startled. The teacher was telling him he was wrong, and he did not know what to say, so he fell silent. The teacher told him, “The meaning of ‘In the beginning’ is that if there’s a Jewish child next to you who doesn’t have a Chumash, you need to help him so he can look in your Chumash together with you.” Then he said, “Come, continue.” The child wanted to go on and say “G-d created,” but the teacher told him, “No, you’ve made a mistake.” The child stopped again, and Reb Yisroel told him, “The meaning of ‘created’ is that if the child next to you doesn’t have a Chumash, you need to share yours with him so he can look in it together with you.” He said, “Come, continue.” The child went on and said “G-d,” [?]. The teacher told him

07:17 once again: “‘G-d’ means that if your friend doesn’t have a Chumash, you need to share your Chumash with him so he can follow along with you.” And so he went through the entire verse, word by word. This was the education of a chassidic educator, who instilled fear of Heaven and Ahavas Yisroel in the children, along with good character traits, in a chassidic way. The whole Torah teaches a person how to develop good character traits. So what did we see right at the beginning of the parsha, Parshas Emor? The opening words, as Rashi says: “‘Speak’ and ‘say.’” From the Torah’s use of both “speak” and “say,” we learn “to charge the adults concerning the children.” The Gemara in Yevamos says that this principle—that adults are responsible for instructing children, a matter of education and guidance—appears in three places in the Torah. That is what the Gemara says on page 114, concerning three sets of laws. First, the laws of forbidden creatures: from a verse there, concerning creeping and crawling creatures, we learn “to charge the adults concerning the children,” so that adults ensure that young children do not, G-d forbid, eat these things. Then, concerning blood, in Parshas Acharei: following the prohibition against consuming blood, there is a particular word from which we learn “to charge the adults concerning the children,” so they do not drink or eat blood. And then, in the laws of purity and impurity concerning kohanim,

09:06 we find a specific instruction regarding the impurity of kohanim: “to charge the adults concerning the children.” Why does the Torah state this principle of education specifically in these three areas? Of course, everything in the Torah is by Divine Providence. The Gemara has an entire discussion of why these three verses are needed and why one cannot be derived from another. It explains at length, according to the revealed dimension of Torah, why we learn this from all three verses. But when we interpret it in terms of serving Hashem and education, what does it mean? What is hinted at by the Torah’s placing the principle of “to charge the adults concerning the children” specifically in these three areas—forbidden creatures, blood, and impurity? There is a letter on this subject, brief but very rich, that the Rebbe wrote eighty years ago, in 5703, with a few further details in 5704. What is the allusion, and what guidance does the Torah give us specifically through these three things? When we speak about education—about the need for the older person to educate the younger one—[unclear]. Sometimes the older person is older in years. That is education in its simple sense: the father, the mother, or the teacher learning with a young child. And sometimes it can also mean

10:36 someone greater in understanding and someone with less understanding. There is a person greater in understanding, and facing him is someone with less understanding, [unclear], as I’m putting it. In that respect he is young in understanding, and we need to educate and guide him, to lead him onto the path of truth and the path of Torah and mitzvos. Sometimes the teacher or educator may fall into despair and say, “There’s no way to help this child, this younger person.” There can be three different reasons, three different things, that might cause us to look at the child, at the person we are trying to educate, despair of him, and think there is nothing we can do with him. The first is that sometimes we look at the younger person’s conduct and see that, because of his disposition, he is in a very low state. He is very coarse and lowly, and behaves in a very foolish, unclean, low, and crude manner. This may stem from the local customs, his surroundings, his father, where he comes from, the family he grew up in, or the people around him. Sometimes we look and see that this person’s conduct, this younger person’s conduct, is so low and foolish that one might, might

12:07 not to deal with him, because he is not even behaving like a human being. He may look like a person, but his conduct is like that of a monkey. He behaves in such a low, what you might call swinish, way that you cannot speak with him at all or deal with him; it is altogether beyond the bounds of human behavior. To this the Torah responds with the laws concerning creeping things. What are these laws? The Gemara says in Horayos that creeping things are something “a person’s soul recoils from.” An ordinary person looks at them and is disgusted. He cannot bear them. And yet the Torah says, “The adults must warn the children.” Here is a child. On the contrary, you see a child so foolish, so coarse, so low, that creeping things are his whole life. He is immersed in such low and foolish pursuits, but one must not give up on him. After all, “Hakadosh Boruch Hu does not make unreasonable demands of His creations,” and “He asks of them only according to their ability.” So Hakadosh Boruch Hu gives us the strength, and it is certainly possible to succeed in “the adults must warn the children” even in these matters, even with people of this kind. Then there is a second type. Sometimes it is a child, someone young, in whom the behavior may already have become deeply rooted. In other words, he has become so caught up in it, so bound to it and so accustomed to this desire,

13:42 that you can no longer speak with him or accomplish anything with him. If only this were at the start of his education, before it had taken hold, before it had become a habit and taken root in him, before it had become something he was used to—it would be easier. A person stumbles once or twice; he is still young, still a child. You can still reach him; he is still receptive. He has become caught up in it, but you can still get him out. Sometimes, though—and today we see this among adults and even among young children or young people, young men—the way the world operates can create a situation where a person becomes caught up in something, as though sold to it, and completely attached to something undesirable, to a desire, until it becomes a habit. It seems impossible to get him out of it. As people call it today, an addiction: a person becomes addicted, caught up in something undesirable, G-d forbid. And people think: Since it has happened once, twice and three times, and has become thoroughly rooted in him, there is no longer anything we can do. So they lose hope of ever getting him out of that place. To this the Torah says, “The adults must warn the children,” in the laws of tzaraas affecting a person.

15:06 The Gemara in Bava Basra says concerning blood—and Rashi cites this in Chumash, in Parshas Re’eh, on the verse “Only be strong not to eat the blood”—that people were steeped in consuming blood. In other words, in those days there were Jews who were steeped in it. They were caught up in it, obsessed with it and immersed in the matter of blood. It was a kind of addiction for them, something it was not easy to draw them away from. And yet the Torah says, “Only be strong not to eat the blood.” That means that “the adults must warn the children”: even in matters like these, one must not give up. You have to speak with him again and again until you succeed in getting him out. Then there is a third aspect of the mitzvah. Sometimes people think that to educate a child—whether young in understanding or young in years—you need to speak with him about things connected to reason, things he can understand. There are things in the Torah that are beautiful, logical and understandable, and you can explain them to him [unclear]: why he needs to change, correct or do something, and why it matters. But there are things for which the Torah gives no reason. The whole category of chukim, and matters of Torah and mitzvos that call for kabbolas ol—matters of which the Torah itself says that they are things

16:40 that cannot be understood through reason, particularly all the laws concerning ritual impurity and purity. The Rambam writes that the laws of ritual impurity and purity are matters a person does not understand; they are decrees of Scripture. At the end of Hilchos Mikvaos, the Rambam writes that all the laws concerning ritual impurity and purity are decrees of Scripture that do not accord with human understanding. A person cannot understand intellectually why one does this or that, why a particular thing is impure, why [unclear], why one needs to wash one’s hands at all, what ritual impurity and purity are about, and so on with all these matters. Here a teacher or educator might think: We need to educate through things that can be grasped intellectually, pleasant things that can have an effect. But with chukim, with matters in the Torah that are not rational, matters of kabbolas ol—you cannot persuade him. And on this subject there was once [unclear]. The Rebbe heard from his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe, who had three daughters. One of them was Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka. When they needed to find a teacher for the Frierdiker Rebbe’s three daughters, they brought in a teacher, a Torah scholar and a great Torah authority, to

18:13 study with the girls the Torah they wanted to teach them. There was an order of study and a parsha they were learning. The Rebbe Rashab, their grandfather, who was there in Lubavitch, noticed that the teacher was not teaching them the entire portion, all of its subjects. He would skip certain things without telling them about them, then continue with the lesson. The teacher said that there were things in the Torah he did not explain to the girls, because some things were very hard to explain rationally and young children could not absorb them—certain Torah concepts that cannot be understood intellectually. So he was first teaching them the things that were easier to understand, and later he would study the more difficult things with them as well. When the Rebbe related what he had heard from his father-in-law, the Frierdiker Rebbe, he said that they immediately dismissed the teacher, because he was not fit to teach young children. On the contrary, young children are receptive to pure, simple faith, to mesirus nefesh and to accepting the yoke of Heaven. So one can also study with them matters beyond reason, matters of chukim, matters that are decrees of Scripture. These are the three points the Torah teaches through the three places where it says, “The adults must warn the children”: in the laws concerning creeping things,

19:41 blood, and ritual impurity. These include the very lowest things, degraded matters; things a person might become steeped in, drawn into and captive to; and, through the laws of ritual impurity and purity, including the laws of a kohen’s ritual impurity and all the related laws, matters that are decrees of Scripture. In all of these, the Torah tells us, “The adults must warn the children.” The Rebbe concludes this letter with two points. First, since the Torah commanded “the adults must warn the children” in these matters, the Torah also gives the strength to do so. As is known, a command of the Torah also gives the strength to fulfill it, so that the teacher can indeed succeed in all three of these areas. The Torah says this specifically so that people should not give up, and so that they should know it is possible and necessary to devote themselves to every Jewish child and every young member of the Jewish people, to set him on the path of truth and awaken the Jewish spark within him. And since every Jew has a Jewish spark, it is possible to awaken it within him and bring about a complete transformation. The second point with which the Rebbe concluded: What gives us confidence that we really can succeed in this? That confidence rests on the Rambam’s well-known words in Hilchos Gerushin. As is known, the Rambam writes that there are cases in which one may, and sometimes must, say, “We compel him until he says, ‘I want to.’” And as explained in

21:16 halachah, sometimes a person does not want to do something that the beis din holds he must do. In the case of a get, for example, a man does not want to give a get, but the sages and the beis din see that he must give it. They can compel him: “We compel him until he says, ‘I want to.’” The Rambam asks: But he does not want to. All that happened here was that “we compelled him”—they forced him. He says the words “I want to” only with his mouth. How can that be called “I want to”? The Rambam says, in his well-known words in chapter 2 of Hilchos Gerushin, that every Jew wants to fulfill all the mitzvos and distance himself from transgressions. He wants to observe Torah and mitzvos. Every Jew, deep within his soul, has a Jewish spark, and his desire to follow it is his true desire. When he says he does not want to, it is because “his evil inclination has overpowered him.” The evil inclination, the fear, are external; they are not who he truly is. When he is compelled, that external obstacle is removed and his inner self is revealed; what he truly wants comes to light. This is the basis here, too, of “the adults must warn the children”: when one believes in this point, when one understands the faith, the Jewish spark within a Jewish child—when the educator and teacher look at a Jewish child,

22:36 They must look at him with eyes that see the truth: he is a Jewish child, and therefore he “wants to do” what is right; he wants to do Hashem’s will. The fact that he [unclear] forbidden creatures, or that he is [unclear] immersed and invested in matters of blood [unclear], and the fact that he [unclear] appears, when it comes to things he does not understand, not to want to observe them for now—all of this is only on the surface. It is not his true essence. His true essence is a Jewish soul, a pure soul, “literally a part of G-d above.” With that faith, that confidence, and that outlook, we can bring the child into the light, illuminate him, and help him become a healthy Jewish child, full of life. That is what education and guidance are about. This brings us to another point we learn from this Rashi, which the Rebbe discussed several times: another hint, and another central emphasis, about how to approach education. One might think that to reach such a child, to educate children, to bring them out of all the things we discussed earlier and help them become healthy, well-adjusted, blessed Jewish children, one must do it the hard way, in a

23:57 forceful way, with severity: treat the child sternly and compel him to do what he needs to do. But the verse, and Rashi following the language of our Sages, chose specifically the expression “to caution the adults concerning the children.” They could have used all sorts of other expressions to describe how this should be done, such as “to compel”; there are many possibilities. Yet the word used is specifically “to caution.” The straightforward meaning is to warn, to instruct. But the Hebrew word lehazhir, “to caution,” is also related to zohar, meaning light: “And the wise will shine like the brightness of the firmament.” The “brightness of the firmament” speaks of light, of clarity. According to this, what is the inner meaning of “to caution the adults concerning the children”? The adults must illuminate the children. They must illuminate the children. This teaches us how to educate. Education can be done in two ways. One can educate harshly, with blows; I do not necessarily mean actual blows, G-d forbid, but one can strike with words too: speak harshly and sharply, stress the negative, the bitterness and the evil of forbidden things, and focus on what is undesirable. And there is the second way, the way the holy Baal Shem Tov taught us to follow: to approach a Jew specifically in a way of lehazhir, a way that brings light.

25:35 That is lehazhir in the sense of zohar: to illuminate for him, to speak with him about the light, beauty, and richness in Torah and mitzvos. To bring out his strengths. To speak with him about the soul he has. To reveal to him the Jewish spark within him. To tell him that he has a holy soul, “literally a part of G-d above.” And to reveal to him the beauty, the preciousness, and the sweetness of “For they are our life and the length of our days,” of “Taste and see that Hashem is good.” How sweet and pleasant it is to serve Hakadosh Boruch Hu. There is a well-known story told among chassidim about the Alter Rebbe. In the early years, while the Alter Rebbe was still with the Maggid of Mezritch, he would travel through towns and bring Torah scholars and learned Jews, in particular, close to the teachings of Chassidus. On one of those journeys, the Alter Rebbe arrived in a town with a synagogue and a beis midrash full of learned Jews sitting and studying. But the light of Torah was missing there, the warmth of Torah, the love of Torah, the joy in Torah. The Alter Rebbe went up to the bimah, knocked on it, and said a few words of Torah—just a few words. As the Rebbe related it at a farbrengen, in the wording and melody handed down from Rebbe to Rebbe, the Alter Rebbe said: “Taste and see that Hashem is good”—taste, and you will see that Hakadosh Boruch Hu

27:02 is good. That was the Alter Rebbe’s entire Torah teaching. If you taste, you will see that Hakadosh Boruch Hu is good. Then he came down from the bimah and ran out of the beis midrash. Dozens of [unclear] followed him, and he told them about Chassidus. What, seemingly, had the Alter Rebbe added? He had not said anything [unclear] more profound. Rather, by awakening in them the sweetness, the delight, the “Taste and see that Hashem is good,” the Alter Rebbe revealed to them a different perspective, a different understanding of Torah. That is lehazhir, to illuminate: “to caution the adults concerning the children”—the adults must illuminate the children. This is what the holy Torah teaches us from today’s portion: what education should look like, how to view a Jewish child, and how we should educate, yes. Education in this way of “to caution the adults concerning the children” has special significance as we prepare for Lag BaOmer, the day of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s rejoicing. We find several aspects to this. First, as we prepare for Lag BaOmer, we see plainly that it is a day of education. We work to educate Jewish children. But why here in particular? There are several explanations. One of the points made about this is connected, first of all, to light. This is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s book. [unclear]

28:25 “Through this book of yours, which is the Book of the Zohar.” Yes, of which it is said, “And the wise will shine like the brightness of the firmament”—and he brings us that radiance. “Through it they will emerge from exile with mercy”: through the merit of the Book of the Zohar, the inner dimension of Torah, the teachings of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai—yes, through it, the Zohar says, when we engage with this book, study it, and understand it—and the meaning is straightforward: to study it with comprehension and understanding, with chochmah, binah, and daas—we merit to emerge from exile with mercy. This is Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s book, as the Zohar says. This is Divine providence. The Zohar in particular is one of the powerful things; it penetrates. And the inner dimension of Torah reveals the light and beauty, the light within Torah. That is the penetrating power of the Book of the Zohar. And what is written in the Zohar? We find two teachings in the Zohar that the Rebbe once discussed at a farbrengen in connection with Lag BaOmer. First, we find something interesting: in the narrative sections of the Zohar, in one of the very first accounts, among the first subjects written there, the Zohar says, in Parshas Bereishis—it brings a verse, when Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai [unclear], and the Zohar says there that in the merit of the Torah studied by young schoolchildren, in the merit of Jewish children learning Torah, through the learning of young schoolchildren, [unclear]. They bring the [unclear] here, into this world, and cause the world to be illuminated and healthy. “And the world is restored”—the world becomes a healthy world, an illuminated world. And “the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land”—we can already hear the voice of Moshiach, the sound of the Geulah reaching the world, bringing it to the Geulah. This

30:13 shows, in general, the power of young schoolchildren and their Torah, especially during exile, especially as we prepare for the coming of Moshiach. Then there is another powerful point in the Zohar. As is known, the Zohar writes that when Moshiach Tzidkeinu comes, there will be “ravya.” Ravya means children, yes, ravya: children—Jewish children—will study and engage with the inner dimension of Torah, and this is one of the signs of the Geulah. From this we see that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai had a special affection for young schoolchildren. For all this to come together at the end of exile, as we approach the coming of Moshiach, we must engage with young schoolchildren. That is why, around Lag BaOmer, we find a special focus on education, on working with young schoolchildren. And here we come to the lesson: what should our approach to education be, how should we educate Jewish children? It must be “to caution the adults concerning the children,” in every aspect of it, in a way of radiance and light. And here another point is added in “Say ... and tell.” All this is contained in the word “say.” “Say ... and tell”—speaking. There are several aspects to this. First, actually speaking. Sometimes a teacher may love a child and think well of him, but not say those things aloud. He is afraid to say a kind word to the child. He does not know—perhaps the child will walk all over him if he says something kind, and he, yes, will be

32:00 With chutzpah. The parsha says: “Emor”—“Say.” Saying means speaking, speaking to the children. And what should we say to them? Speak to them in a way that brings light. Speak to them and bring out their strengths, as the Rebbe likes, as the Baal Shem Tov taught: speak in praise of the Jewish people. Bring out the special qualities of a Jew, the special qualities of a Jewish child, and how much the Rebbe loves every Jew. Yes. That is the idea of “Say, and tell.” For “say” is a gentle expression, as Rashi says. Speech is not the same as saying. Saying is specifically gentle. Speak gently. And “Emor,” as the Midrash says, [unclear], “The words of Hashem are pure words.” Yes, the speech of Hakadosh Boruch Hu is pure speech. And with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, saying is specifically an expression of kindness and praise. In the same way, everyone should take from today’s parsha that we must always say good things, express them in words, bring out the other person’s strengths, and speak of the strengths of the Jewish people. And when we speak of their strengths, as the Rambam rules in Hilchos De’os, our speech should be in praise of the Jewish people and their strengths. When you love a Jew—“Love your fellow as yourself”—the Rambam says: How? You must speak in his praise. Because when you speak in his praise, you bring the other person’s strengths from concealment into the open. And as the Baal Shem Tov said, speech has tremendous power. When a person speaks about something, as he speaks about it,

33:42 he brings it from concealment into the open. There is the well-known story of something that happened with the Baal Shem Tov: when something undesirable was said, the Baal Shem Tov showed his students its effect on a non-Jew. And of course, a thousand times more so, when we say something good, we bring out the other person’s strengths. When we speak positively of someone’s virtues and praise them, we awaken those strengths and bring them from concealment into the open. And this is what today’s parsha teaches us about how to educate: Jewish children should be educated by bringing out their strengths, speaking to them gently, and giving them light. That is how we build this generation. For this will be the generation of Moshiach, the generation of Jewish children, who will be the ones to “recognize Him first.” They will stand face to face with the true and complete Geulah. And they will say, “See the children we have raised.” And this will be Hashem’s command: to leave exile and go to the complete Geulah through Moshiach Tzidkeinu, speedily in our days, amen.