Below is a synopsis of a Farbengen we, (the counselors of Walnut Creek, Ca,) had with Rabbi Raleigh Resnick, this past Shabbos.
~What would you do if your camper started acting up? Most people would use the different techniques found in various "professional books," such as "How would you feel if someone did that to you?," to stop the kid from what he is doing.
~Imagine someone is getting married and they want to know more about men, (being that they're getting married to one!!!,) they will most probably open up some book written by some non-Jew or even a Jew, to find out more information.
Doesn't it sound a little funny???
This is the problem with our generation, we open up secular books to find out how to lead our life and raise good kids, when we have it all in Torah and Chassidus!!! It's actually one way of denying the Torah...
Why does the outside information appeal to us???
Most people are drawn to it bacause of the advertisements such as "Read me, and all your problems will be solved in less then a day" or "Is your child having problems in school? Read this and he'll succeed within the next week"
What should we do???
Whenever we need advice with big matters, (getting married, raising kids etc...,) we should look into what the Torah or the Rebbe has to say. In order to prevent having to skim through the many Sichos, Maamorim, Perokim of Tanya... every time you have a question, you should learn a little more Tanya each day, or another letter from the Rebbe each night, so that when the time comes, you'll know where to look.
How do we know this works???
Think back to the days when your grandparents were growing up, they didn't have all the studies and books to help them get through life, yet, they succeeded to raise Chassidishe children, and have an amazing Shalom Bais... it's because they learned how to live based on what Torah and Chassidus have to say.
If we would only take this into account and lead our lives based on what is true, then the world wouldnt be a bad place after all and of course Moshaich would be here to help guide us in this path.
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11 comments:
wow! thankx for sharing.
it's so true. btw, a great thing to learn to help you raise children, deal with campers, etc.
maamar klalei chinuch v'hadracha. they have it in english too. and if you don't mind waiting, we'll be learning it in chitrik. could be the other sems also learn it.
really interesting. i read the whole thing (believe it or not!) anyone who has had farbies, please post! i'd love to read about them!
Moshiach NOW!
p.s. regards to all from venezuela!
esty, send regards to all my previous campers!!!
hmmmmm
i suspect i've heard along these lines sometime before in my life... ;)
in theory i agree... but practically, and i'll take the example you brought in yourself...controlling misbehaving kids: if you notice, you had no problem bringing an example of what the psycho books had to say ("what if it was you..?") but when it came to the torah part, you just skipped that out. so tell me, what DOES the Torah say about that?
honestly, if i want to deal with my kids... sometimes you think a goy's common sense could help you too! (forget Freud - not even getting there!)
oh btw dobie thanx for blogging! we do appreciate it! ...and welcome!
Okay, I don't mean to sound skeptical - although I probably will end up being the resident skeptic on here, but in the 'olden days' they did learn secular things. And besides, some secular knowledge is helpful to us since we can't always understand all the subtleties in the Torah. You can't just say that you shouldn't read self-help books. (Don't worry, that's not where I'm headed right now!) But still, you can't just trash all the knowledge of the goyim, there is something in everything that Hashem created after all, you just have to know how to pick the good out.
hi purplerose! :)
think you could remind us all as to ur identity... can't seem to remember!
as far as your comment... i think your last line is kind of the hole..."you just have to know how to pick the good out" - which most people don't necessarily know or have the ability to! and that's definitely a problem, and why it's something discouraged in general.
it's Raizel, and I know that most people don't know how to pick it out, but it's not like it's something you're born with, you can be taught it
well, i see what some of you are saying, that there is some good in what the Goyim write about, because it does come from HaShem... however, if thats the case, why dont we learn it straight from the source!?!?! Do we need a Goy to tell us what the Torah says?
Also, about what the Torah says for misbehaving kids... i dont know exactly, but rabbi resnick said, and im assuming its based on torah :), that if a kid misbehaves, tell him not to, you dont need to go into a whole discussion about how the child feels about it. this might make him feel partly in charge, although thats what some kids need (and since they get it at home, its hard to change the way they are disciplined in a few weeks...), but the child really has to know that you're the boss, and if you say something, he has to listen, its the concept of Kabolas Ol
btw, I hope that made sense!
Dobie that was a really great synopsis of the farby! yay! I finally read it! :)
Just to add to what Dobie is saying, Rabbi Resnick also brought out the point that a lot of not Jewish literature on this stuff comes from sources that are completely against the Torah's perspective of things.
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