<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 1:15 PM, Yosef Skolnick <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:yskolnick@gmail.com">yskolnick@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="gmail_quote"><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size="3" color="#242424"><i><br><br>
</i></font>Dare one suggest that it is time for the yeshivas to stop
preparing their talmidim for the seder and follow Reb Yaakov's
approach? </div></blockquote><div><br></div></div><div>I would be happy to say that I agree with you. I have a big concern though. There are students in the schools that don't have parents that know enough to be able to teach their children. Either the parents never got to go to yeshiva for one reason or another, or there was a divorce in the family etc. If the kids don't know some of the story from school, when will they learn it to teach to their children. </div>
<div><br></div><font color="#888888"><div>Yosef Skolnick </div></font></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Divorce might affect the issue of the father's responsibility, bringing the communal responsibility of teachers to the scene. But is v'higadta similar to v'dibarta in this manner? Is the community responsible, or is the mother responsible?</div>
<div><br></div><div>As to the general issue, children are inevitably--as they should be--educated in school about the story of the Exodus and about the laws and customs of the holiday, simply because of the role that schools occupy in our society, where parents have neither the time nor the expertise to be completely responsible for directing educating their children. So the issue seems to be whether or not young children need to be poised to learn all the tidbits of the seder itself--such as the many vignettes of the Haggadah, which barely touches upon the Chumash's account and focuses on specific lessons of Jewish history, survival, and cultural narrative. Perhaps children should be "misdirected" to focus on aspects of the story that leave room for parents to discuss the significance of freedom and Hashem's hand in the world. A big part of V'Higadta is to make the story very personal--"This is what Hashem did for me," which only parents and caregivers can really impart to children. Parents should discuss with their kids what it means to them to be free and part of Am Yisrael.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Another important idea is to simply ask children questions. Don't let them read off packets and sing song after song from class about plagues and such, but ask them specifically about what they've learned about specific parts of the story. And ask them experiential questions, like what they think it would be like to be on scene when the events took place.</div>
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