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Parshas Be'haaloscha - Don't Put Your Kids to Sleep!

By Rabbi Zvi Teichman

Posted on 06/23/16

Parshas HaShavua Divrei Torah sponsored by
Dr. Shapsy Tajerstein, DPM - Podiatry Care.
(410) 788-6633

The school year has once again ended. The children are joyous, happy to be free from the ‘constraints’ of school and eagerly awaiting the joys of ‘liberation’ and summer vacation.


When the Jewish nation embarked on their initial journey from Mount Sinai, nearly a year after having received the Torah, we are told that they fled like a תינוק הבורח מבית הספר, a child who flees from school.  (מדרש ילמדנו מובא בתוס' שבת קטז. ד"ה פורענות)


The Talmud reveals that it was this negative attitude that served as the catalyst for their eventual complaining about entering the great unknown wilderness which led to their subsequent expression of dissatisfaction with the ‘monotonous’ manna and their gluttonous desire for real meat. As a consequence a consuming fire erupted as well as a plague that afflicted many of them.


Certainly we can forgive children who gleefully escape the confines of the classroom, but the Torah here is taking to task the 600,000 adults who behaved like children in their celebration of freedom from the ‘school’ at Sinai. 


Why do adults remain children? How is it that this magnificent nation who was so privileged to receive the Torah at the greatest revelation in all of history, remained so childish in their attitude and didn’t mature from the experience?



At a Yeshiva for disillusioned adolescents in Israel they recently celebrated the Yom Tov of Shavuos. With special programming and inspiring speakers throughout the night, delicious food, inspiring singing and a kumzits, even the most hardened hearts among them experienced the joy of Torah and Yiddishkeit.


Yet there was one student missing.


The Rosh Yeshiva searched through the campus to find him.


He finally discovered him in the stable of horses they maintained as a healthy distraction for the students, sitting all by himself .


Surprised to see the Rosh Yeshiva roaming the campus the young man cynically blurted out, “Don’t you belong in the study hall Rebbe?”


After responding that he was out looking for him he then inquired of his charge as to why he was here. The youth told him that he was in good company as both he and his ‘fellow’ horses both couldn’t fathom why anyone would have to stay up learning all night and be deprived of sleep. After all, he pondered, why should we have to stay up to atone for our ancestors having slept in at the giving of the Torah?


The Rosh Yeshiva lovingly told him, that he was welcome to go to sleep and that there were no expectation of, nor disappointment with him and he was free to choose to do as he pleased.


With an incredulous look on his face he exclaimed “What do you think I am, a little kid? No one sleeps on Shavuos night!?”


The perplexed look on the face of his Rosh Yeshiva in reaction to his angry response prodded him to open up and explain.


Years ago as a young boy he would accompany his father each Shavuos night to his local Shul. Restless as he was he would learn as long as he could but would inevitably end up gallivanting outside all night with his friends, having the time of their lives.


An elderly neighbor whose sleep was disturbed by these well intentioned, albeit playful boys, stormed into the shul confronting his father as to the propriety of bringing children to frolic all Shavous night and disturbing the innocent neighbors.


The irate father who was deeply engaged with his chavrusa turned to his son and exclaimed out loud, "כנראה שאתה עוד ילד קטן, לך לישון!", “You are obviously still a little child, why don’t you just go to sleep!?”


So this deeply traumatized young man from that painful moment and on subconsciously dedicated his life to prove he was ‘not a small child’ and would defiantly choose to do as he pleased in order to prove his father wrong!



Perhaps the people felt so puny in contrast to the fabulous Torah they were presented with and miniscule in stature as compared to their great teacher Moshe who fathomed 49 of the 50 Gates of Wisdom falling short only by one.


They were certainly inspired but couldn’t picture themselves ever attaining significant levels of Torah. So as soon as the lesson was over they sighed a sigh of relief, acting as children often do, looking for adventure and excitement. This pursuit led them to cynical about their abilities which resulted in defeat and the quest for additional more satisfying pleasures.


So would Moshe reel them back to reality and a perception of themselves as ‘adults’ who could accomplish great things?



There was once a father who had a child who seemingly couldn’t absorb or focus on his learning whatsoever. Frustrated the devoted father went from teacher to teacher, tutor to tutor, seeking out the one who might succeed with his son, but to no avail. 


Finally he naively decided that if the regular teachers couldn’t pull it off, then he would go directly to the Rav of the town, the greatest scholar in the region, and ask him to tutor his beloved child.


To everyone’s surprise the great Rav agreed. At first there seemed to be a repetition of all of those who preceded him, without any noted improvement. But the Rav persisted and after several weeks and then months the young boy blossomed, eventually becoming proficient in his studies and many years later becoming a Rav in his own right.


They inquired of the great Gaon , the town Rav, as to what was the secret of his success.


He responded by telling them that when all the others sat down to teach this young boy they all realized the great disparity between their level of scholarship and that of their very ignorant and learning disabled child.


However, he went on to tell them, when he approached the child, he first pondered the reality that in the endless vastness of Torah knowledge that exists although he was erudite and brilliant he was nevertheless still a child himself despite all of his accomplishment and acquired knowledge. In the greater scheme of the greatness and size of Torah, the difference between that boy and himself was negligible.


When a child senses a teacher that regards him with the same respect as he does himself, putting his disciple in the same category of growth, that feeling of ‘maturity’ will assure his willingness to  give his all to attain even what which may seem impossible.



In Moshe enlisting the ‘Seventy Elders’ perhaps his goal was to display that despite the great gap that divided him from them they were able to nevertheless obtain the same ‘spirit that was upon him’, achieving an otherwise unobtainable level of prophecy.


These remarkably devoted Elders, who had served as taskmasters in Egypt who allowed themselves to be beaten rather than their brethren should suffer, would be the ones who would ‘identify’ with these children, inspiring them to ‘mature’ and grow with them. They would never callously regard them as ‘little children’ dispatching them to their figurative beds telling them to ‘go to sleep’!



We are all children. We should all be in a state of constant process of maturation and growth. We must identify ourselves as such when dealing with our own children and students.


We must never make a children feel ‘small’ because if we do they may dedicate their lives to proving us wrong by selecting to assert their ‘maturity’ in areas that are very far removed from the values we cherish and hold to be true.


If we perceive and portray ourselves correctly and honestly they will in turn join us in this fabulous journey of Torah and mitzvos that is the only path that guarantees true happiness in life.


באהבה,


צבי טייכמאן