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Perashat Vayehi 5776

Home > Rabbi's Weekly Message > Perashat Vayehi 5776

Perashat Vayehi 5776

Friday, December 25, 2015 Author: Rabbi Elie Abadie

We place great importance in educating our children. From the moment they are born, we start inculcating in them certain values of right and wrong, correct and incorrect. As soon as they reach the age of 12 to 18 months, we start searching for a good school that will be the “best“ for our child. For the next 12 to 16 years we are involved in the education of our children, choosing the best elementary and high school. We make sure to choose the best college and university, having in mind that our child will become the next Surgeon General or Attorney General or the next Bill Gates, Steven Jobs, Warren Buffet or Mark Zuckerberg. 

Education is the single most important process that we can bequeath to the next generation; giving them the wherewithal for survival, sustenance, progress and continuity of the human race. Indeed, it is a formative process that will shape a person into who they will become. 

In Perashat Vayehi, Yaakob blesses the children of Yosef and says to them, “By you shall Israel bless, saying ‘May G-d make you like Ephraim and Menashe’ ”. Our Sages and Commentators ask as to what is the reason that Yaakob used Ephraim and Menashe as the example of the way Jewish children should be blessed? The answer given is that they are the model for all future generations, in that they demonstrated the strength to maintain their Jewish values and traditions in the face of the hostility and temptations of the foreign Egyptian culture and society. 

The strength that Ephraim and Menashe demonstrated, was only because their parents, namely Yosef and Asenat gave them the proper education. Even in the face of the onslaught of assimilationist education and culture in Egypt, Ephraim and Menashe survived and thrived as the children of Yosef and grandchildren of Yaakob. Given the difficulty of being the only Hebrew Israelite family living prominently in Egypt as the children of the Viceroy, they were still able to maintain their identity, knowledge, observance and pride in their traditions, values, language and culture.

Jewish parents, especially in exile, ought to hope that their children show the same kind of commitment to their heritage. Hope however, has to be based on present reality. It is only due to the education that we give our children,  that we can hope that they will demonstrate commitment to our heritage. Even that hope is not a guarantee; it is only a hope. Hope that is not rooted in reality is overly optimistic and unrealistic, and ultimately will become very disappointing, given our high expectations that will not be realized. 

Living in the United States and the Western world has afforded the Jews an open society and freedom to educate our children in our traditions, values, culture and heritage. One would think that living in an environment of hostility and oppression would have made educating our children more difficult and living in a free environment would make it easier. The relationship of a good and solid Jewish education and the assimilation rate, is inversely proportional. The better the Jewish education, the lower the assimilation rate; the worse the Jewish education, the higher the assimilation rate. Therefore, analyzing the assimilation rate of the Jewish community in the Western world, including the United States, we would come to the conclusion that Jewish education in these countries is dismal. However, if we analyze the data in detail, we arrive at the conclusion that it is actually the lack of Jewish education that has contributed to the high assimilation rate. We reach that conclusion because the assimilation rate of alumni of Yeshiva/Jewish education is up to 15% while the assimilation rate of Jews who attend non-Jewish schools (eg., Public, and even more dangerous expensive Prep schools) reaches 80%. 

While our forefathers in all their lands of dispersion, despite hostilities, oppression, persecution, expulsion and annihilation, maintained their Jewishness and did not assimilate, we, living in an era of freedom and openness not seen prior in history, have unfortunately, squandered that freedom to assimilate and disappear as Jews. Statistically, the Jewish population in the US should have been over 18 million souls; however, we are less than 6 million, as per the last census. 

There are no two ways about it; if you put your child in a non-Jewish school, the chances that that child will marry a Jew/ess is only 20% as of today’s statistics. In another 10 years, if the assimilation rate will continue to increase, those chances for a Jewish spouse are even less. If you enroll your child in a Jewish School, it is still not a guarantee - but your chances are higher; up to 80% will marry Jewish. If you would like to increase those chances to marry Jewish, your home has to complement the school and the synagogue. A home that keeps kasher, Shabbat and regular synagogue attendance will definitely improve those chances of Jewish continuity. It is in our hands and our responsibility to secure such a continuity. 

I hope that the blessing and lesson of Ephraim and Menashe will continue guiding our people until eternity. 

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