The Father Who Spares the Rod and Calls It Love

Midrash Mishlei 13:4

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

(Proverbs 13:24): "He who spares his rod hates his son." Now is there really a man who hates his son?! Rather, because he does not rebuke him concerning matters of wisdom and proper conduct, he is called one who hates; but the one who rebukes his son concerning wisdom and proper conduct, he is called one who loves him, as it is said, "But he who loves him disciplines him early" (Proverbs 13:24). Rabbi Eliezer says: Because the Holy One, blessed be He, loves Israel, He chastises them in this world through subjugation to the kingdoms, so that there may be atonement for them in the time to come. This is the meaning of what is written, "But he who loves him disciplines him early."

Themes

ParentingWisdomDivine Justice

Continue Reading

The Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)The One Son Who Refused to Beat His Father's CorpseA man lay dying. He had ten sons. His wife, in a bitter moment late in the marriage, had once told him that only one of the ten was biologically his. The other Hebraic Literature (1901)Rabbi Benaah Solved the Ten Brothers Inheritance CaseA man in the Talmud (Bava Batra 58a) once overheard his wife whispering to their daughter. Of their ten sons, she admitted, only one was truly his. She would noHebraic Literature (1901)Rabbi Meir on Trades, Wealth, and the DispenserRabbi Meir, the great fourth-generation Tanna and student of Rabbi Akiva, taught that when a father teaches his son a trade, he should pair the lessons of the cHebraic Literature (1901)Seven Rules Rabbi Akiva Gave His SonBefore Rabbi Akiva died, he sat his son Rabbi Yehoshua down and gave him seven instructions. They read less like commandments than like the quiet advice of a maThe Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)The Father's Half-Friend and the Son's Hundred Fair-Weather OnesGaster's Exempla (1924), Nos. 360–362, preserves three old parables about what friendship really means. This adaptation focuses on the first, a teaching about tThe Exempla of the Rabbis (1924)Beruriah Explains Why the Barren Should RejoiceBeruriah, the scholar and teacher married to Rabbi Meir in second-century Tiberias, was famous for being able to hold her own against any opponent in Scripture.