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RSRH's brilliant essay about educating children with this title can be
read at <br><br>
<a href="http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/lessons_jacob_esau_col_vii.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/lessons_jacob_esau_col_vii.pdf</a>
<br><br>
In part he writes<br><br>
<font size=3>If anything should draw our attention to the importance of
the<br>
right education, it surely must be the history of the families whom<br>
Divine Providence chose to help determine the development of man-<br>
kind in general and of the Jewish people in particular. Cain and
Abel,<br>
Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau-these three pairs of brothers were<br>
each products of the same home and raised under the same influences.<br>
Jacob and Esau were, in fact, twins, carried together in the same
womb<br>
and born at the same time. Each of these three pairs of brothers was<br>
nurtured with the same care and attention. And yet, in each case the<br>
two brothers grew up to be completely different from one another. In<br>
each instance we see that only one of the brothers followed the
godly<br>
pursuits to which their home had been dedicated, while the other was<br>
utterly lost to them. Should these family histories not give us
pause<br>
and spur us on to do everything within our power to raise our own<br>
children that not only the one or the other, but all of them should
grow<br>
to follow their God-ordained spiritual and moral calling? Should we<br>
not make a careful study of these family histories so that, if
possible,<br>
we may discover why the educational methods applied by fathers of<br>
the stature of Abraham and Isaac failed, so that we may learn the
pitfalls<br>
that must pose an even greater threat to the educational efforts of<br>
ordinary people like ourselves? For surely, in every other respect,
the<br>
influence of education cannot have been more successful anywhere
else<br>
than it was at the home of Abraham and Sarah. Truly, in order to<br>
understand the power with which the Father of all mankind endowed<br>
parental education, and the results He expects from the influence of<br>
the proper upbringing, we need only, as the Prophet Isaiah puts it,<br>
"look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the
pickhammer<br>
with which you were chiseled; look to Abraham, your father, and to<br>
Sarah, who should give birth to us all" {Isaiah 51,
1-2).</font></body>
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