The riot act – Ki Tavo
Twice a year the Torah reading contains a Tochechah, a catalogue of curses. One stinging curse after another is threatened if Israel fails to hearken to the word of God.
It is no pleasure reading these words, and no pleasure being the ba’al k’riah whose task it is to enunciate them publicly. He in fact probably blesses his forbears, who ruled that these passages must be uttered in a soft voice so as not to seem exultant at the dire forebodings they contain.
Yet, especially if he is a rabbi, he is often tempted to castigate his community aloud, if not in these words then in others of similar harshness. Like every Jew, he has a duty of hoche’ach tochi’ach et amitecha, “you shall surely rebuke your fellow”.
When wrong is being done, the eyes may not be averted, the ears switched off or the tongue silenced. All the more so if one is a rabbi and sees the imperatives of Judaism compromised or trodden on.
But be practical, the rabbi tells himself. What is the use of hellfire and brimstone? Most people are not impressed by horrific warnings. It may even be counter-productive. Some will be turned off religion altogether because they see no sympathy in the rabbi; others will sit back and enjoy the performance without the slightest intention of taking any notice.
In some ways a more difficult problem is faced by the Hebrew teacher who sees how little most parents support the patterns of practical Judaism taught to their children at day school or Cheder.
Yes, the teacher has no illusions; the home-school conflict is not going to evaporate overnight. But teachers do have a conscience. They do not know how much they will achieve, but neither can they remain silent.
What can they do then? Read the riot act to parents out of sheer anguish or anger, and make the conflict worse and risk having the child withdrawn from Jewish education altogether? Shunt the issue aside, teaching ethics without observances?
That’s not Judaism. Jewish tradition sees the “psychological need for ritual acts… speaking to the hidden depths of human nature” (Agus). In any case, it is not only the area of observance where there is a conflict; it is in ethics too, where the child hears one thing and sometimes sees another.
A better approach is for the teacher to be a diplomat, telling a child, “What you learn at school or Cheder does seem different to home, but your parents are pleased you are learning mitzvot; perhaps you can explain how hard you want to try to keep this mitzvah and they will probably be proud of you and support you, and they might even come to follow you.”
Above all, the teacher can and must encourage in the school environment the experience and love of mitzvot. Imagination, resourcefulness and initiative offer countless opportunities to immerse children in such pleasurable experiences of Judaism that the child will never forget. As soon as that child can make his or her own decisions and walk with a little independence along the path of life, the melody, the taste, the aroma, the words and the spirit of the mitzvah will come back.
In a very literal sense, the teacher will have, as the rabbis say, given the child olam haba, a taste of heaven on earth.
