[Avodah] Swimming

[Zev Sero]

On Areivim, "Chana Luntz" <chana at kolsassoon.org.uk> wrote:
> Don't know - but it does make me wonder though.  It is a mitzvah to
> teach one's child to swim. 

Is it? This is listed in gemara Kiddushin as one of the duties a father
has to his son, but while every other item on the list is brought down
lehalacha (as indicated by the En Mishpat / Ner Mitzvah), this one is
conspicuously not. AFAIK the rishonim who are our sources of halacha did
not agree that it is a requirement. Why they singled out this item to
omit from the entire list, I don't know; but it is a fact that they did.


> Without mechitzed swimming (and how was that arranged with the local
> authorities?) how did any of the rabbonim in Europe (and previously,
> including as far back as Chazal) arrange for this to happen?

AFAIK they didn't. I know that my zeide never taught my father to swim,
and nor did my elter-zeide teach my zeide, and I'm pretty sure that goes
back many generations, and nobody seems to have raised an objection from
the gemara in kiddushin, probably because it's not brought down lehalacha.

-- 
Zev Sero
zev at sero.name