PREPARING OUR CHILDREN

This week's parshah contains powerful lessons on how to stay strong in the face of the challenges that life presents us with. The passuk says, "And you shall keep a stake [yated] ... and it shall be, when you sit down outside, you shall dig [chafarta] with it..." The Be'er Mayim Chayim explains that yated implies grounding oneself and chafarta can imply embarrassment (following the meaning in Sefer Yeshayahu). This hints at the necessity of attaching ourselves firmly to Hashem before we enter the outside world and confront its nisyonos. Each and every one of us, he writes, needs to ground himself with both ahavas Hashem and yiras Hashem so that when we "sit down outside," we will be embarrassed to do aveiros.

Only a strong attachment to Hashem at all times gives us a fighting chance at overcoming the inevitable challenges we'll face in life; without that attachment, we are almost certain to stumble and fall, again and again.

This lesson applies not only to us but also to preparing our children for life. Chinuch isn't just about the here and now of getting children to comply with demands and behave well. It's about the big picture of being mechanech them for years ahead. We don't know what challenges they will encounter, but we do need to know which tools to give them. It's vitally important that we protect them as far as we can and shield them from inappropriate and damaging influences; at the same time, we need to do what we can to encourage them to attach themselves securely to Torah and those people who embody its teachings, so that when they encounter life's inevitable challenges, they are armed and ready.