EDUCATIONAL INSIGHTS
Educating the Children of BTs
Becoming a baalas teshuvah in my early 20s was such an incredible turning point.
words into Yiddish and then finally at last, English? When
I stepped into the world of Torah Judaism full of
and then to have a separate class in which Yiddish was
excitement for the paradigm shifts that I had so painfully
taught, I was told “no.” There were no compromises.
and consciously embraced over a journey of two-and-
There was no understanding of what not just my children
a-half years. Bucking the social norm and becoming
were struggling with, but many children of baalei
enlightened with Jewish mystical wisdom and traditions
teshuvah families were struggling with as well. And that
set me on my path.
was just the beginning of my disappointments.
And once married, how excited I was to share the
The amazing Torah wisdom that had been taught to
incredible gifts of Torah with my budding offspring.
me with such lovingkindness and excitement, stories
Though I had not been raised knowing the secrets of the
and teachings filled with intrigue, depth, meaning and
universe, I was confident that my children would be. My
mystical explanations, was not being given over to my
journey of becoming a baalas teshuvah, which had been
children in that way. Instead, the beauty of Torah had
so fraught with confusion and the difficulty of releasing
been turned into tests, grades and dry lectures, except
past beliefs, would not be my children’s journey. My
for a few individual teachers who knew better.
children, whom I would send to Torah schools, would not
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have to face those challenges.
I complained that my children were struggling with understanding their studies and asked if the Chumash could be just translated from the Hebrew into English,
Fast-forward about 30 years later. I know very few baalei teshuva families, or frum-from-birth families, who didn’t
And then reality hit—the reality of sending my children to
have children go off the Torah derech. The excitement
a school that was created by and for those Yidden who
of movies, social media and modern society has by far
had grown up with Torah—those known to be FFBs. The
replaced the excitement of learning and practicing the
cheder that I sent my boys to and had even moved cross
gifts of a Jew’s heritage. Boring classes and complacent
country for, insisted on teaching the precious Torah,
teachers in Torah-true schools are no match for the fast-
what I had grown to love, in not just one language that
paced, easy-to-access and intriguing secular knowledge
was foreign to my family, but two.
of today.
The staff themselves had grown up with Yiddish, so why
What I’ve come to discover is that there are Torah
not teach the Chumash in Hebrew, and then translate the
educators who recognize that the educational system,
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