David has known about the sofer (scribe) for a long time. More recently he learned the word kofer, as in the pitch that Noah spread on the ark so that water would not leak in. Tonight we were going over Parshas Va'eschanan--last week was busy--and I asked him who we go to if we need a mezuzah or tefilin. He responded that we go to a kofer. I'm not sure if he he really got confused between the two rhyming words, or if he was acting silly. But all I could think is that if someone asks him from whom do we get our mezuzos and tefilin, he might respond from a kofer. Kofer also means a heretic. Well of course the public school family obtains their mezuzos and tefilin from a kofer.
* * *
But more seriously, my heart skipped a beat in the car today. David has asked me a number of times why there is still a mosque on Har Habayis and why don't we rebuild the Beis Hamikdash in its place. (Yes, I know it's not actually a mosque but rather a shrine.) I don't have a good answer for him and I generally mumble something about Jews being afraid to instigate a war and then I veer off to a topic as unrelated as possible.
Today he once again asked me and I responded with my well rehearsed mumble. But before I could get him onto another train of thought he interrupted me and blurted out that he doesn't think all the stories about Moshe Rabbeinu are true. Huh? Where did this come from? We had just picked him up from his tutor. Is she a koferes and poisening his mind? I asked him why he would say such a thing. He said that if we are afraid to destroy the mosque because it might spark a war then this means we don't believe the veracity of all the stories that describe how Hashem helped the Jews defeat their enemies in battle.
In the good old days the melamed would give him a smack on the head and that would be the end of it.* How in the heck am I supposed to respond?
* * *
The stock character of the cruel melamed is well attested in Jewish literature (e.g., Solomon Maimon's autobiography), although my professor once questioned the accuracy of this portrayal as a stereotype. I can only note that my grandfather, in the course of supplying me with an oral family history, described the cruelty he witnessed in his Warsaw heder. He referred to the melamdim as murderers. He also related that after questioning the midrash about Yaakov trying to get out of Rivka's woom when she passed a yeshivah, he was subjected to a torturous ear pull (which he blamed for his hearing loss?).
My grandfather--David's namesake--turned out more than ok. Hopefully David will live up to his example.
2 comments:
I have the opposite - I worry that my younger son picks up too much uncritical belief from the tutor. My son enjoys stories and often asks for a quick story before or after learning. So now my son believes that the second plane from 9/11 was delayed by a guy who wouldn't leave without his tfilin, among other things. I don't know and don't care if the rebbe believes it, but my son believes, like, everything.
TESYAA:
just to clarify in case i wasn't clear in the post, i didn't really think he picked up the "kefira" from his tutor, who in any case focuses almost entirely on dikduk and chumash text skills.
as far as uncritical story-telling goes, well that really deserves a separate post. i will merely note here that his camp this summer brought back some bad memories of his yeshiva, including the heavy over-reliance on storytelling
Post a Comment