Pesach – Passover, the
festival celebrating the exodus from Egypt and Shavuot – the festival
celebrating the giving of the Torah 50 days later are considered in a sense as
one holiday. The intervening days when we count the o'mer -= sefirat
ha'omer marks the
process of spiritual growth and elevation towards the receiving of the Torah and
thus connects Pesach and Shavuot, similar to chol ha'moed. The Zohar makes a
similar connection. In Egypt speech = di'bur was in galut=exile. On Shavuot,
the final redemption of speech = ge'ulat ha'dibur took place. When the Egyptian
king died and it became clear that the new Pharaoh was no better than the old,
the people moaned and cried out in pent- up despair. Their outcry was not one
of repentance or prayer but of pain. Because
of the slavery and oppression they could not speak to God but only lift up
their eyes to God as the verse in Psalms 123:2 הנה כעיני עבדים אל יד אדוניהם, כן עינינו
אל ה' , תהילים קכג:ב the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their
master so are our eyes unto Hashem our God They could not communicate with God
as 'dibur' =speech was in exile. The process of redemption of speech began on Pesach = פה –סח ,
the' mouth relates and says' , continued when they reached ' Pee ha'chirot' or called Pee Ha'cherut ' the mouth of freedom and reached a high after
the miracle of the Red Sea when the children of Israel sang praises to God –
the song of the Sea שירת הים.The final redemption of
speech took place on shavu'ot when God spoke directly to the children of Israel (
the first 2 commandments ) and Moses despite previously having a speech
disability spoke the rest of the
commandments.
We give expression to
the process of the redemption of speech – geulat ha'dibur on the seider night
by telling and recalling the story of the exodus from Egypt. We encourage the
participants and especially the children to ask questions because authentic
questions drive true speech and communication.
Unfortunately, we soon
forget the educational lessons of the seider night. A teacher complained that
he could not get a kid in his class to listen. On the seider night we discuss
the 4 sons and their questions and if a child has difficulty in asking
questions we help him. Instead of theorizing about the reason the kid is not
listening we should try and get that info from the kid. We might need to reassure
him that he is not in trouble and all we
are trying to do is gather information from him about why it is difficult for
him to listen during a lesson in Gemorrah.
The famous educationalist Deborah
Meier said that teaching is essentially listening and learning is essentially
talking. Ross Greene, the originator of the CPS – collaborative problem solving
approach asks challenging kids the following question - to build trust but also
to understand the parent – child dynamic from the kid's point of view. What's
the matter with them ( your parents )? Most often the answer is ' they don't
listen to me, so I have stopped talking to them'.
If we want kids to talk
to us, we must listen to them and in this way we can contribute to the
redemption of their speech - ge'ulat ha'dibur.
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