מה הדבר הכי חשוב בחינוך הילדים? | הינוקא בשיחה מרתקת עם הרב עותניאל מנצור מפקח רבני בתי הספר בחמ״ד

2:46 The Maharil Diskin even writes that when an Ishmaelite is at prayer, it is forbidden to pass in front of him. The Maharil Diskin - in front of him. Because, so to speak, the Holy One, blessed be He - they all turn to the Holy One, blessed be He. But Christianity is not like that; it is outright idolatry. So what really is the difference? In Christianity, they put man in the middle, as though Hashem, as though the Creator, has to serve man.

3:11 All their desires, all of that - they put man at the center. And in Judaism, in the holy Torah, the Holy One, blessed be He, is the center, and the created being must serve the King. You see it in the whole Torah, all of it: it is servitude. We must emphasize more the worth of one who truly merits to draw close to Hashem. They are not raised on this, and so many drop out. So many people read a book and say, "Fine, that was then - what is it to our days?" and they leave. This must be instilled in everyone: to understand that the value of the Torah is today, it is now.

3:38 It is the most important thing in the world. Nothing is more important. Mori Chaim Sinwani, may his merit protect us - so great was his esteem for the Torah that he would take off all the covers of the books and make all the covers with drawings, in his own hand. Have you ever seen such artistry? He would draw it. "What is he doing?" They once asked him - Rabbi Mordechai Sharabi, peace be upon him, asked him: "Why do you do this?" He said: "The value of the Torah is so great to me that I am not satisfied with this cover that was made at some printing house in Jerusalem, and that is the end of it. I cherish the Torah."

4:12 He made drawings; every book had its cover. He would bind it and give it importance. Rabbi Meir Poppers writes: touching holy books is like touching the garments of the King. That is something. And also kissing the book before learning and after learning - it is a segulah for memory, as he writes. The value of the Torah, to my sorrow, has been forgotten, and then with what it says, people already grow lax. To my sorrow I say this. - I am glad to tell the Rav that one of the things we did to raise this - as the Rambam brings, "to cleave to those who know Him" - "To those who know Him." - Right. To see the Torah scholars and cleave to them. So one of the things I took upon myself in the two years I have been in this position - before that we ran a yeshivah, and other things -

4:46 we took it upon ourselves to go and see the Torah scholars of the generation, across the whole spectrum. To see them, to cleave to them, and to take from them the world of Torah; to see how they speak, how they say a word of Torah. So that is exactly what the Rav is speaking about, and I am glad that we were aiming the same way. And on the specific side, for the school rabbis: how does the Rav see their next stage - what is the next level for the school rabbis within the institution? We have school rabbis in the institutions. As I told the Rav, we have more than eight hundred rabbis, we have about a thousand institutions, we are talking about four hundred thousand students and tens of thousands of teaching staff.

5:16 We are talking here about a very big enterprise, state-religious education in Israel. The school rabbis are entrusted with the Torah atmosphere in the schools, on the informal side and the formal side: how they come into the classrooms, how they teach, what the level of the holy studies in the classroom is, the matter of mara d'asra, questions. We deal with very, very difficult questions - in matters of modesty, in matters of Torah, in matters of love for the holy, and in matters of communities: how to connect the communities so that they remain on the foundations of tradition, on the foundations of the Torah.

5:43 So the school rabbi today, in today's generation - from the Rav's own acquaintance, since the Rav meets so very many people - where does the Rav say: "The school rabbi today, in this generation of Jewish children - this is the point the rabbi should focus on. This is something he should become more skilled in. This is something he should..." And the Rav said: love of the Torah, connection to the Torah. And now on the practical level, in deed, down to the details: how does the school rabbi do that? Is there some advice for the rabbi - how does the rabbi see to it that he has such great love? I want an institution's rabbi to be like the Rav: he walks into the school, people come, meet him, ask him questions, want him to be with them.

6:16 As I told the Rav - I say, already from a young age, already from kindergarten age, we begin. One of the things we have now brought in is kindergarten rabbis. Already from kindergarten age. So what advice does the Rav have now for the school rabbi - that perhaps we can even write down afterward; we will watch the recording, and afterward perhaps we can pass it on to the school rabbi in state-religious education? A fine question, your honor. I will tell you. It needs explaining. There is something very deep in what you are asking.

6:43 Because in the end, the future depends on the education of the children. Everything they learn now and absorb from their teacher - they are the blank paper. Whatever is written on you - you, now - that is the future. It all depends on this. You can gather a great deal now, but the question is how one writes on the paper. It is like handwriting, where there are different levels: some write beautifully, correctly and properly on the paper - it is blank paper.

7:14 And one can write a mistake, Heaven forbid, or write good things, but in a scribbled hand, with many erasures. When teaching the Torah, it is important to teach it with sweetness of speech, pleasantly, with love, to put all the worries aside; a person should come to the Torah able to leave his problems behind. Everyone - you know, people come to learn Torah, and it is hard. Because a person comes into the teivah - Noach came into the ark, the teivah, with all the flocks and cattle and creatures.

7:42 And so it is too: a person comes into the teivos, the words, of Torah and prayer, and he brings all the animals with him, the beasts, everything he has in his life, he brings with him into the Torah. And then he is alarmed, he is confused, it disturbs him. One could say: always help them focus, so that when they come in they say: "Right now I have only this moment with these children, and I must engrave it in them for generations" - to think how this learning now will be learning for the future to come.

8:09 That is, I am not teaching the one who sits here. They say this of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov - they say "Rabbeinu HaKadosh, Rabbeinu HaKadosh." Rebbi HaKadosh - the one they called Rabbeinu HaKadosh was Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, but Rabbi Nachman of Breslov too - everyone says "Rabbeinu HaKadosh, Rabbeinu HaKadosh," all over the world. You know, they say that one of the things he always put into his teaching - he would teach the students, and he would always teach them and speak also of those who are not here.

8:40 He always said: "A time will come, in another 200 years, when whoever does netilas yadayim, washing his hands, will be like the Baal Shem Tov, of blessed memory." "And a time will come when such and such will happen." He told his tales, the Sippurei Maasiyos, and said: "Mashiach will continue my tales." He told a tale, stopped, and said: "Mashiach will come." All the time he spoke about those who are not here. That is, he was thinking all the time, in his teaching: this is not a teaching for this hour; it is a teaching for the hours of the future to come.

9:05 That is how one's outlook on teaching should be. And the student, too. A great deal also depends on the student toward his rabbi. To truly receive the Torah, it also depends on the students having appreciation for what the rabbi gives them. The rabbi may give a great deal, and sometimes a student who goes astray, Heaven forbid, who does not behave properly and does not appreciate properly - there can be so many mishaps. All of Christianity began because of trust - in Jerusalem and Alexandria. That is: "And judge every person favorably." For the bond to be good - the rabbis, good, but the students must be educated too: that it does not depend only on the rabbis but on the students as well; that the students be loyal, that the students appreciate, that the students understand how important it is that the rabbi comes to teach them.

9:44 He has his own affairs too, and he has to help them and teach them. They need to be attentive, to value what they are receiving, to say thank you to him and strengthen him, so that he has the strength to give to them. In other words, the students too: this is work that, in this case, is required on both sides. It is not required from one side only. The rabbis have to teach, but of course they must teach pleasantly, and instill in them this matter of baseless love and baseless hatred, and keep them away from the prohibition of lashon hara.

10:08 Children should get used to speaking clean language, to understand that Reuven is Shimon - not Reuven and Shimon. To understand that we are one, to understand that we are "one man with one heart." Of course, if there is a student who is not behaving properly, one can talk about it, warn him, keep him away from what is not good, but one must understand that this is the way to guard the Torah. By the way, the Yerushalmi, in chapter 1, halachah 1: in the generation of Achav, when there were idol worshippers among them but no informers among them, they went to war and won.

10:39 Every war that came, they would go and win the wars. What was so important there? Idol worshippers - and the Holy One, blessed be He, says: there are no speakers of lashon hara among them. How much the Holy One, blessed be He, values and honors it when Torah is learned, when the children are taught. And the rabbis must put the emphasis here: how many children come - that child, and that child too - why? Someone put him down a little, he humiliated him.

11:05 And afterward the child sits there, unfocused in class, thinking the whole time about how they laughed at him. Then the teacher is teaching, and he says: "Shimon, didn't you hear? Repeat it." Shimon: "Sorry" - he is confused, he does not understand. Then the principal: "Why aren't you listening? Busy with your pencil, busy with your ruler!" It all comes - the whole root comes from these small hurts that no one pays attention to. These are the things that are the very smallest.

11:32 With the Torah, when a person enters it, he must feel: "I am escaping from my troubles." Where do we find this? David HaMelech fled from Shaul - fled to his beis midrash. One must feel: "Today I had a hard day, so now I am going to the classroom." The teacher must feel: "How can I now draw close to Hashem? What a joy this is going to be - the children are about to receive Torah - how can I give it to them? I am going to enjoy this." Not that he begins to say: "Here I come again to the quarrels, here I come again to the lashon hara, again - what do I need this for?"

11:59 He must feel that he is coming to a good place, a place where he will have enjoyment and joy and pleasantness in teaching, and the children will come out to teach - to learn from him, and to teach. But it all begins from this root. That is my recommendation: that it be founded on loyalty, on the way of holiness, no lashon hara, things like that - these are the things most connected to it. - We see in Pirkei Avos: "loving people and bringing them close to the Torah."

12:24 Why not "in order to bring them close to the Torah"? It is what the Rav is saying, that we should love people. Rav Tzvi Yehudah says: by loving people, and seeing that you and Reuven are as one man with one heart, then in the end you will see how he has drawn close to the Torah - with sweetness of speech, in a positive way, with a pleasant countenance. A great privilege. So I would be glad if the Rav would now bless the students of the Chemed. I bless the students of the Chemed. Your honor, you have surely heard what I pointed out in the Gemara, in Shevuos, page 39a: "All of Israel are guarantors zeh bazeh, one within the other" - and not zeh lazeh, one for the other.

12:51 The difference between zeh lazeh and zeh bazeh is like heaven and earth. Zeh lazeh - they are like this, one beside the other. They are next to each other. But zeh bazeh - give a hand, one in the other. No - one like this, one from here. Lift it? Is this good? Like this? Zeh bazeh - you see? One within the other: they are bound up in each other. All of Israel are guarantors, one within the other, shoulder to shoulder with one another.

13:16 Zeh bazeh. Zeh lazeh - they are only next to one another. True mutual responsibility - what is it really about? It is that we are with one another, that we are one. That we do not see you as separate from me; that I see myself, and you see yourself, in me. That is the highest level: to be the complete person. And I bless "the mountain that G-d desired" - Har Sinai, the source of Hashem's desire - this wonderful name, Chemed: the stand at Har Sinai - that everyone there should receive Torah every day, with thunder and lightning.

13:48 May there be fear of Hashem, may there be holiness and purity, and may you rise and be uplifted in holiness and in the sweetness of the Torah - the honored rabbis and the holy students. May you do valiantly, may the Name of Heaven become beloved through you, and may Hashem, blessed be He, spread His shelter of peace over you. May you have good lives and salvations. "Length of days is in her right hand, in her left hand, riches and honor." "May You add days to the days of the king." May your honor succeed and continue to make the Torah great and glorious; "may your springs spread outward."

14:13 May all the blessings and good bounty come to you; may all the blessings written in the book of the Torah reach you. Glad and joyful, tranquil and secure. Be strong, be strong, be strong. Success from Heaven. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. You have strengthened us greatly. This week is my bar mitzvah parashah, and I have come away with a blessing. The second thing, Rav, with Hashem's help: I heard that the Rav mentioned Rabbi Yichya al-Dhahiri, and I merited to do both a book and a study on him. - Al-Dhahiri? - Al-Dhahiri. And I wrote about him - in Arabic it is "al-Dhahiri" - and I have also brought the book. - The author of Tzeidah LaDerech. - Right, the author of Tzeidah. I researched it. - On the Rambam?

14:54 I researched it - on the Rambam, the Rambam as well. - I learned from it. So here - the one on tefillin as well. But by the way, this is the Rav's name here. More articles. Your honor has researched a great deal, and all this - on tzitzis, on... - This is a doctorate you wrote? - On his commentary on the Torah. On the Torah, on the Torah. Chasid published it in 5724.

15:18 Right. And my uncle David published the edition. So he published that edition. I have now published the edition with fifteen manuscripts, a comparison of manuscripts. And here is the Bereishis edition. I said, I will present it to the Rav. Here is the Bereishis edition. He was truly a delight, with such clarity. And there is a study, too: how did he relate to the world of Kabbalah, how did he relate to the world of drash, of pshat? He was the first herald who brought the world of Kabbalah into Yemen. People later attributed that to Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, but he preceded him by a hundred years.

15:49 He brought it in systematically. There had been echoes of the Zohar that had come in, but systematically - he brought it. And why? Because he traveled the world, met Rabbi Yosef Karo - and we have documentation of Rabbi Yosef Karo: that he was in his beis midrash, and Rabbi Yosef Karo said to him, "Come, say a word of Torah on Shabbos." In Tzfas? - In Tzfas. For twelve years he traveled the world, and he met him. He was outside Yemen for twelve years - he was in India, in Egypt, in Turkey, in many places - but one of the places was the Land of Israel, the Tzfas of the sixteenth century. He met Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, and more and more and more, hundreds.

16:21 But that Rabbi Yosef Karo, Maran, said to him, "Come, say a word of Torah on Shabbos" - and so about a decade ago I decided, baruch Hashem - with my teacher and rabbi, and all - to study the commentary, to dig into it, to learn it, all with fifteen manuscripts, including one manuscript from the United States that the National Library does not have. We made the effort, baruch Hashem, and we got to it. I have... - What has opened for us here? And for all of it, baruch Hashem, we merited great help from Heaven. - What has opened for us here?

16:47 Here we see one place... What is this? Where is it? David HaMelech said... David HaMelech said this about himself and Shaul. Shaul was pursuing him and seeking to kill him; Shaul fell into his hands several times, and he did not do it to him. Here he blesses and praises Hashem for having put it in his heart, each of those times, not to kill Shaul. He said: "I will bless Hashem, who has counseled me" - my mind was brought to agree with the mind of the Omnipresent. And so it says...

17:11 You know that when a person opens a book, it is a kind of ruach hakodesh. Yes, there is a saying like that, which he writes. Where - it is written in Malki BaKodesh? - Yes, it is written in Malki BaKodesh. And so it says: "If I have repaid with evil the one at peace with me - I, who rescued my foe for nothing." He placed his case in the hands of Hashem, blessed be He, and He judges with righteousness. "Even in the nights my conscience admonishes me" - for more than once he went in, having resolved in his heart to kill Shaul. He would enter Shaul's camp at night, and no one knew that he had entered, while Shaul lay within the encampment; he took the water jug and the spear that were Shaul's.

17:38 It was in his hand to kill him, and in the end he held back: "For who can send forth his hand against the anointed..." He took it back and said: "For who can send forth his hand against Hashem's anointed and be guiltless?" He would defy the evil inclination, so that it would not lead him astray, and this is: "I have set Hashem before me always; because He is at my right hand, I shall not falter." "At my right hand, I shall not falter" - and this stood by him: David and his sons reigned, and his sons' sons, until the end of all generations, one could say; and so it would never depart from his descendants, forever. With Hashem's help, in the coming year the book too will come out, in an edition the likes of which there has never been.

18:17 And we are doing two things. The Yemenite bookshelf is going to receive something very, very fundamental, and truly scholarly as well, of course. Oh, wait, I did not understand - this is for me? - It is for the Rav. - Oh, so I do not need to give it back; I thought you brought it for me to look at. - Oh, no, no. I also brought the Rav a book on tzitzis, a whole world on tzitzis. - This is really something, it is something, it is... You know, I used to learn it. After my bar mitzvah I had a Yemenite mori, a teacher; we would go together, and I would also read from the Torah a little, I would read a few aliyos, with mistakes along with it, too.

18:47 All right, I would get plenty - in a synagogue of Yemenites, you know how it is, every littlest thing... - But you read well, without a mistake. - Baruch Hashem, baruch Hashem. So I would read the parashah, and after the shnayim mikra v'echad targum I would sit and read Rashi, and after that the Tzeidah LaDerech. I never gave it up. I read all of it several times. So I merited to learn it over a number of years. His commentary is something else. It is something else. There is nothing like it. There is nothing like it. Commentary on Tanach, certainly, on all of Scripture.

19:19 And most certainly when we are speaking of the Jews of Yemen. So I said, he has such a mind - it is something... the way of Pardes. It is unbelievable, his thinking... The sweetness of the Torah. The writings of Yemen - tell me, even the Yalkut HaRo'im - have you read the Yalkut HaRo'im? - No. Which book is that, HaRo'im? - The midrash of the Yemenite sages, the Yalkut HaRo'im. There is the midrash of Rav David Adani... - I have it, I have it. - There is Nur al-Zalam, there is the Midrash...

19:47 Yes, the whole world knows those, but the Ro'im, at least, is rarer. And here, the Rav has sent us off with homework too, with Hashem's help. This as well is the book on tzitzis and tefillin, Rav; we have given it to the Rav. Here is a Pesach Haggadah as well, according to the Rambam and according to the Maharitz. And here is the prayer Refa'einu, which among the Jews of Yemen it is the custom to say before Yishtabach. I made it with an explanation, so that people can say it together, for healing, for redemption, both personal and collective.

20:12 It is written in manuscripts; it was put together back in recent centuries. I made this, and people take it, and I said, I will present it to the Rav, that he should have blessing. And baruch Hashem, this is education. Wait, do you know the... Why did you not do it the other way around instead, with the... I mean, so that this would be here? This is the commentary, and then an explanation for whoever wants a little... - No, the explanation here. - Oh, the explanation within the words. - As I did. - So, okay. - It is very nice, thank you. It is more pleasant, easier to read, more... - I accept that, with Hashem's help. When we merit to do it, we will come and present the Rav with the... - That is good. And there is also this prayer. Do you know the Bakashos - "G-d, my G-d, You are the King and I am the servant" - do you know it? - Where, where again? - In Siach Sifsoseinu, do you know it? - Yes, certainly. - So in the introduction there is

20:55 such a great praise to the Holy One, blessed be He. "G-d, my G-d." - "Master of the worlds, Master of mercy, great in counsel and mighty in deed." - Right. - This one too, eh? The children can say it for you. "Master of the worlds" - say it, say it, come on. "Master of the worlds." Say it. Very good. Do you understand what we are reading here, or not?

21:21 Do you understand? Do you see their holiness? Come in, come in. But there is that one, and there is the "G-d, my G-d, You are the King and I am the servant, and who will have mercy on the servant if not the King?" They say to Him: "You are the Ruler, and I am the one ruled." In which siddurim? - By the alef-beis? - Yes, yes. In the Bakashos, by the alef-beis. It is praise of Hashem. It is something. No one knows who its author is. Look, it is a praise; I say it often, on Rosh Hashanah.

21:49 I took a copy of it, and I always say it on Rosh Hashanah, with the whole congregation. Everyone says it. It is something moving - "G-d, my G-d." Believe me, it is a praise to the Holy One, blessed be He, that is really something. Has your honor received my prayer? Now they will show us. Which one? No, not that one, not that one. Tell him how many - tell him, a book. This one they do with the children: they learn it by heart, they read it, and they feel something not of this world. Let your honor read it - it is a prayer I composed - and let your honor tell me what he feels.