QUESTION:
The Rav speaks often about the importance of speaking Yiddish. What about teaching in the yeshiva in Yiddish to a class that understands English better; is that the right way?
ANSWER:
That’s not a moot question; it’s a very important question. It’s worth teaching Yiddish to Ashkenazi boys and girls because in a certain sense it maintains the tradition; it maintains a certain aloofness from the nations – it shows we are a separate people.
However, many times the message goes lost in an unfamiliar language. When they teach in a foreign language so the children who barely understand Yiddish are lost – and sometimes the subject matter is so difficult in itself that even in English it’s difficult and now you compound the difficulty by teaching it in Yiddish. And therefore, it’s a question.
Some children must have only English instruction. And even then it’s a question if they’ll succeed. Because the Torah subjects are not easy. Chumash for some children is a mountain. It’s remarkable how difficult it is for some children to climb that mountain. And then they need expensive tutors.
And Gemara?! Gemara is the Alps for some children; many fall down and become discouraged – they become disillusioned because of the difficulties of the studies. And if their difficulty is increased by using a foreign language like Yiddish, it’s a big problem.
And therefore, wherever possible English should be used until the child knows the subject. Then Yiddish should be introduced. Exactly how much Yiddish and how much English has to be left to the teacher on the spot.
Reprinted from the Parshas Va’eira 5784 email of Toras Avigdor adapted from Tape #539 (January 1985)
Thoughts that Count
But against any of the Children of Israel, a dog shall not whet its tongue (Ex. 11:7)
Animals, and particularly dogs, are the first to be aware of the approach of a natural catastrophe; their frenzied barking is often the first indication that anything is wrong. Thus, when the dogs in Egypt remained silent, it demonstrated that the slaying of the firstborn was a supernatural plague rather than an outbreak of illness or natural epidemic. (Kol Omeir Kera)
The dog is the most faithful and empathetic of all domestic animals. If someone in the household should die or be injured, a dog will make the most heart-rending noises to express its grief. Thus, after describing the terrible confusion that the slaying of the firstborn would cause - "there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more" - the Torah reassures us that the dogs in the Jewish sector would have no reason to bark. (Rabbi Yeshayahu Horowitz of Vienna)
Reprinted from the Parshat Bo 5761/2001 edition of L’Chaim.
