Rav Baruch Shayish, a well-known mechanech, was the principal of an elementary school in Netanya. At his shiva, a prestigious talmid chacham communicated how all that he has is credited to the late mechanech. “If not for your father’s wisdom and tremendous love for each child, I would be in other places.”
He explained how when he was growing up, his father was a newly observant Jew, and his mother was yet to become. One year, the yeshiva arranged a grand Chanukah party for the students and the parents. Before finishing the event, Rav Shayish called upon each child to express in public their future wishes. While most children described their dream as wanting to be the next Vilna Gaon, or to know all of Shas, and so on, one of the children had a different type of dream:
“I want to be an expert motorcycle rider,” he told everyone. The other boys began to laugh, making this boy think that he was completely wrong for even opening his mouth.
However, not a second passed before Rav Shayish grabbed the microphone and addressed the audience. “Look at what a tzaddik this child is! Look how he says the truth and only the truth. While his friends have expressed very noble aspirations, it may well be that some of these aspirations are not really what the children want. Some of them may be hiding what they really want.”
Turning to the boy, Rav Shayish continued. “But here is a boy who has expressed his true aspiration. This is truly what he feels and wants. Here is a boy who is not embarrassed to say the truth, and a child who is not afraid to say the truth — and only the truth — will get very far,” concluded Rav Shayish as he patted the child on the back, walking him back to his seat.
“I was that boy,” said the talmid chacham. “Only your father’s wisdom and tremendous love for each of us gave him the inspiration to come up with such a wonderful solution to that potentially embarrassing situation. And had he not thought of those encouraging words on the spot, I would find myself elsewhere. I was a hairbreadth away from discontinuing in school, and because of Rav Shayish’s understanding of who I am, it made me into who I am.”
