Rabbi Zev was reviewing a mishna with little Tzvika.
Tzvika read, "And even a poor man has to have four cups --
even from the soup."
"What does that mean?" Rabbi Zev asked.
"It means that even a poor man has to have the Four Cups
during the Seder and he can even use soup for them," Tzvika
replied.
Rabbi Zev's brows furrowed in consternation. Where did he get
that from?
Then it all became clear. The mishna says that a poor
man is obligated to drink the Four Cups "Afilu min
hatamchui." The last word refers to a free soup- kitchen
and the mishna is telling us that even though a person
might be so poor that he lives off the communal soup kitchen,
he is still obligated to obtain wine for his Four Cups.
Tzvika learns in a Yiddish-speaking cheder and the
teacher simply translated "afilu min hatamchui" as
"afilu fun der zuppe" without explaining, probably
taking it for granted, unconsciously, that the children knew
that `soup' does not mean plain soup but refers to a soup
kitchen.
*
"When can I do a Shabbos aveira?"
Mrs. Cohen looked at her six-year-old boy in shock. "A what?"
she asked in disbelief.
"A Shabbos aveira. My teacher said that if someone
loses something and I find it, I have to do a Shabbos
aveira," Chaim innocently responded.
Mrs. Cohen laughed with relief. "No, Chaim. Your teacher did
not say that. He said, `Hashovas aveida' which means
the mitzva of returning a lost article."
Chaim had no idea that he had nearly given his mother a heart
attack.
*
Two-and-a-half-year-old Sorele had suddenly fallen into a
deep depression. No one could understand what caused it.
Eventually, an understanding lady had a chat with Sorele and
the cause was revealed.
Sorele lives with her family in New York. She had overheard
her parents discussing the upcoming summer vacation and she
heard them say that they were planning to fly to Europe --
and Sorele didn't know how to fly!
She had imagined that the whole family would go out onto the
lawn and start to flap their arms and take off and fly to
Europe -- and she would be left behind!
*
Mr. Benny was working on developing teaching aids. He showed
his daughter a picture of a man with a large question mark
over his head and asked her what she thought it signified.
She said that it was a picture of a man hanging by a hook
from the ceiling.
*
There are many things that we take for granted, but we should
not assume that our children understand things as we do, or
as we intend them to understand.
We were brought up in an environment which had certain
conventions, but the world has changed and our children are
not necessarily exposed to the same conventions.
We therefore need to check back and ensure that our audience
is indeed understanding us as we want them to understand
us.
Rabbi Arye Leib Gurwitz zt'l, Rosh Yeshiva of
Gateshead Yeshiva, used to teach the first shiur. From
time to time, he would stop, point to a boy and say to him,
"Repeat what I have just said." This ensured that every
talmid kept awake, but it also gave the Rosh Yeshiva
feedback and confirmed that the boys were hearing the
material correctly.
