Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed Children

Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed Children

Rabbi Yitzchok Newman | Head of Hebrew Academy; Rabbi Congregation Lubavitch

Jews of all ages celebrate the Passover Seder with the help of its playbook - the Haggadah. The word Haggadah stems from the Biblical passage of ‘tell your children’. The Seder is focused on the children. The Seder challenge is how to keep the children bright eyed and bushy tailed through the evening. This same challenge exists year round with our children. How do we accomplish this feat?

Isidore Rabi, winner of a Nobel Prize in physics, was once asked why he became a scientist. He replied “My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: So? Did you learn anything today? But not my mother. “Izzy,” she would say, “did you ask a good question today?” That difference — asking good questions — made me become a scientist.”

It is indeed about the student asking the ‘good question’ but, equally important, it is about a teacher who uses that teachable moment to respond properly and effectively and bring growth and maturity to the ‘child’.

The Haggadah talks about the four sons (of course, daughters also): the wise, the rebellious, the simple and the uninquisitive. One interpretation is that, instead of four different sons, it is a natural progression of the same son at different stages. It starts with an innocent and lively child who is full of curiosity and sincerely inquires because of his thirst for knowledge. But if he is not given the proper attention and good answers, he becomes ultimately distraught and rebellious. His frustration results in negative and even defiant types of questions and interactions. He is nevertheless still engaging in the conversation. In time he gives up his involvement and ceases his interaction with others. Outwardly he seems dull and simple. And, in the final stage, it results in the child giving up altogether - an apathetic child not willing to ask and explore.

Even the most capable leader of the Seder cannot turn around the uninquisitive to the wise son in one evening. However, over the long run, capable and talented teachers are able to utilize the teachable moments when good questions are posed and stimulate the child with the most penetrating answers. This type of an environment has the potential to produce the next generation of involved Jews and the equivalent of the Jewish Nobel Prize winners.

It would be prudent for communal organizations to tend to the needs of the wise and curious child in Judaism and provide them the opportunity to receive stimulating answers in order for them to continue along their Jewish path forward. We need to keep the Jewish child in the ‘wise’ stage to succeed. One such institution that, based on extensive research, achieves that goal is the Jewish day school. With over 300,000 students nationally it builds an environment of inquiry through passionate teachers who search for the teachable moment to bring their students into a Jewish future.

May we all merit to see growth in our children on the night of the Seder and throughout the year with true Yiddishe nachas. Happy Passover to all.