* Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
It's the month of August. Here's a thought that may give strength to millions of parents, children, and grandparents — to anyone sitting in traffic, searching for one more activity to keep everyone occupied, or simply wondering: When will the school year finally begin?
The truth is that the most influential and meaningful learning doesn't actually take place in the classroom. It is happening right now.
This is the time when children learn what real life looks like — how their parents speak, work, and drive, how they behave in the park or at the hotel, and how this entire world functions beyond the school walls.
Right now, children are simply studying us. For all the articles about "the best teachers," there is no doubt that the teachers who shape us the most are our parents.
After all, almost every relationship can end. Friendships can end, marriages can dissolve in divorce, contracts can be voided — but the bond between parent and child can never be severed.
It is such a profound, powerful, and fundamental relationship that this week's Torah portion, Re'eh, uses it as a metaphor for our relationship with God: "You are children of the Lord your God.”
In other words, even if we are far from perfect, even if there has been distance between us, even if we have wandered, become confused, or forgotten our purpose, we always remain children of our parents, and of God as well.
