My family and I had recently enjoyed an outing to the bowling alley, courtesy of our friend, the owner. Children of all ages enjoy this weatherproof sport, and even preschoolers can easily score strike after strike as bumpers support the heavy ball as it creeps its way towards the pins at the end of the lane. I initially found it humorous to watch the children as they threw the ball down the lane and then attempted to guide the ball by waving their hands or moving their bodies in the direction they wanted the ball to take. When I found myself waving my hands, hoping for some magical incantation to move the ball away from the gutter, I realized that in life as well, we hope to change what we have done – even when it is too little and too late.
In part one (TorahAnytime.com, 1-11-2013), we discussed that someone who loves his home and his parents, has loving memories of his school life and felt enamored with the warmth and chesed of his community would not leave it for the trappings of the secular world. The most important dynamic in keeping our children within the community is to make them feel special and create an environment of Torah that is warm and accepting. Many of the scores of children who have left the faith of our forefathers did not feel this happiness, connection, and pull. WHEN, one might ask, did they begin to feel disconnected from the education and spirituality of their families, schools, and shuls?
In my opinion, its not that they began to feel disconnected; many children are not properly connected to begin with. Dovid Hamelech tells us (Tehillim 127), “Just like arrows in the hand of the mighty, so too are our children.” When we shoot an arrow at a target, all that matters is using the right amount of strength to pull back the bow and aiming the arrow in the right direction. Just like the bowling ball, once it has left our hands, we can wave our hands in what ever direction we want, but if the arrow’s flight was not started properly, there is no way to change it’s course. Dovid Hamelech is teaching us that children must begin their lives and formative years in a conducive and loving environment. If we think that the early years are not as relevant since our children have their whole lives ahead of them to change their philosophical courses and middos, we are wrong. Our early life experiences set the stage for our feeling and direction in regards to relationships, life, and our connection to Torah.
Chazal tell us that most members of the animal kingdom are naturally inclined to leave their parents’ homes in a short span of time from birth. It is only humans that need years of education to learn how to move, talk, and integrate with others. This gives parents the opportunity to guide their children for an extended period of time. The Hebrew word for parents is horim and the word for pregnancy is heryon, teaching us that the child leaves one womb and proceeds to another. Just as the womb provides a perfect environment for nine months, providing the unborn child with all his physical needs, parents must continue to provide the child with all his needs in the “wordly womb.” The difference is that in the womb of life we must also give our children moral, ethical and spiritual direction. It is during his formative years that we can develop his sense of ethics and morality, guide his behavior, and nourish within him a love of Judaism.
Man is compared to a tree. We need attention and nutrition just like trees do. The first three years of a tree’s growth are crucial in its growth and viability. During these formative years we remind ourselves that the tree is a blessing from Hashem; we recognize that by refraining from partaking from its fruits. Many do not cut a boy’s hair for the first three years of his life due to this parallel, as a reminder that the child’s life should also be dedicated to the One who has blessed us with this child. When we plant a tree we must make sure that its trunk is straight, as once the roots have taken hold, the tree will be too large to adjust. We must teach our children the proper behavior and direction when they are young, as it is much harder to change when they are older.