MAKING OUR CHILDREN COUNT
Ki Sisa - Shekalim
Our youngest son started pre-school this year. Like other parents, watching a 3 year old start school is a daunting experience. How will they manage? Will they get lost in the crowd?
In the beginning of Parshas Ki Sisa, Moshe is told to count the Jewish people. Since we do not count Jewish people, each man over the age of 20, whether poor or rich, would give a half Shekel. These coins would be tallied to determine the census of the military age population.
The Torah does not use the conventional words for counting such as וספרת . Rather it uses the words כי תשא את ראש , which literally means when you lift up the heads of the Jewish people.
What does it mean to lift up their heads and why is this a suitable description of the commandment to count the people?
We count things which have an intrinsic unitary value. We count money because each coin is valuable. A child counts their marbles or cards because each one is important to them.
The counting itself does not give or create the value. Rather, the counting articulates and gives recognition the intrinsic value which each counted item innately possesses.
This idea finds expression in the Jewish laws of Kashrus in the principle of Bittul - nullification. A forbidden food will becomes nullified if it was mistakenly mixed into kosher food in a particular ratio (usually 1/60). At this point the forbidden food is considered so negligible that it is as though it no longer exists.
However, an item which is counted or sold by number possesses a certain Chashivus (importance). It is referred to as a Davar Shebeminyan (something which is counted), and can never become nullified not matter what the ratio. Like a diamond amongst thousands of rocks, something of unique individual value can never truly be considered as nullified.
Back to Ki Sisa. Colloquially, to hold lift your head up high describes a state of pride and self-confidence.
One of the desires of all parents and educators is to instil self-pride and a sense of self-worth and confidence in our children - to lift up their heads, to be self-assured and proud of who they are.
This sense will carry them through life and allow them to overcome its challenges and to strive to succeed. It is this sense which breeds leaders, who stand up for what is right rather than dissolve or become nullified to the whims of social pressure.
So how do we lift up their heads? By counting them, or more accurately, by showing them that they count.
Every child (or person for that matter) has deep intrinsic worth. They possess a unique Neshoma and a unique personality. Hashem has endowed every person with a unique set of qualities with which to fulfil a unique Divine mission which only they are capable of achieving.
As parents and educators, our job is to ‘count’ them. To see their strengths and potentials, to reveal their unique value and to communicate it to them so that they recognise it too.
Each time that we offer our acknowledgement or praise, we are counting them. Each time we communicate how proud we are of them and how special they are and the talents that they possess, we reveal their inner strengths and qualities. We ‘count’ them and they feel counted. Ki Sisa, we lift up their heads.
This message of our belief in them must be constantly communicated. Like Hashem counting Bnei Yisroel, we have to ‘count’ our children again and again to reinforce the message.
May Hashem bless us all with Nachas from our children and may we see them grow up as proud Torah Jews with the self-esteem and confidence to fulfil the Divine mission which has been destined for them to achieve.
In the beginning of Parshas Ki Sisa, Moshe is told to count the Jewish people. Since we do not count Jewish people, each man over the age of 20, whether poor or rich, would give a half Shekel. These coins would be tallied to determine the census of the military age population.
The Torah does not use the conventional words for counting such as וספרת . Rather it uses the words כי תשא את ראש , which literally means when you lift up the heads of the Jewish people.
What does it mean to lift up their heads and why is this a suitable description of the commandment to count the people?
We count things which have an intrinsic unitary value. We count money because each coin is valuable. A child counts their marbles or cards because each one is important to them.
The counting itself does not give or create the value. Rather, the counting articulates and gives recognition the intrinsic value which each counted item innately possesses.
This idea finds expression in the Jewish laws of Kashrus in the principle of Bittul - nullification. A forbidden food will becomes nullified if it was mistakenly mixed into kosher food in a particular ratio (usually 1/60). At this point the forbidden food is considered so negligible that it is as though it no longer exists.
However, an item which is counted or sold by number possesses a certain Chashivus (importance). It is referred to as a Davar Shebeminyan (something which is counted), and can never become nullified not matter what the ratio. Like a diamond amongst thousands of rocks, something of unique individual value can never truly be considered as nullified.
Back to Ki Sisa. Colloquially, to hold lift your head up high describes a state of pride and self-confidence.
One of the desires of all parents and educators is to instil self-pride and a sense of self-worth and confidence in our children - to lift up their heads, to be self-assured and proud of who they are.
This sense will carry them through life and allow them to overcome its challenges and to strive to succeed. It is this sense which breeds leaders, who stand up for what is right rather than dissolve or become nullified to the whims of social pressure.
So how do we lift up their heads? By counting them, or more accurately, by showing them that they count.
Every child (or person for that matter) has deep intrinsic worth. They possess a unique Neshoma and a unique personality. Hashem has endowed every person with a unique set of qualities with which to fulfil a unique Divine mission which only they are capable of achieving.
As parents and educators, our job is to ‘count’ them. To see their strengths and potentials, to reveal their unique value and to communicate it to them so that they recognise it too.
Each time that we offer our acknowledgement or praise, we are counting them. Each time we communicate how proud we are of them and how special they are and the talents that they possess, we reveal their inner strengths and qualities. We ‘count’ them and they feel counted. Ki Sisa, we lift up their heads.
This message of our belief in them must be constantly communicated. Like Hashem counting Bnei Yisroel, we have to ‘count’ our children again and again to reinforce the message.
May Hashem bless us all with Nachas from our children and may we see them grow up as proud Torah Jews with the self-esteem and confidence to fulfil the Divine mission which has been destined for them to achieve.