Train a Child While Young With the Rod of Torah

Midrash Mishlei 22:3

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

"Train up a youth according to his way" (Proverbs 22:6). Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Joshua differed. Rabbi Eliezer says: If you have trained your son in words of Torah while he is still a youth, he keeps growing in them, as it is said, "Even when he grows old he will not depart from it." And Rabbi Joshua says: It is like this cow that has not learned to plow, and is hard to handle in the end; and like this vine-shoot, which has its place while it is still moist - and once it has hardened on you, can you still bend it? "Folly is bound up in the heart of a youth; the rod of discipline removes it from him" (Proverbs 22:15). Rabbi Zevida said: The rod of Torah removes it from him. If a person is worthy of the rod of discipline, well and good; and if not, then the lashes of the court. This is what the proverb says: "To the wise, a hint; to the fool, a fist." If a person is worthy, then there is the rod of Torah; and if not, then the rod of the kingdom. There we have learned (Mishnah Avot 3:5): "Rabbi Nehunya ben ha-Kanah says: Whoever takes upon himself the yoke of Torah, they remove from him the yoke of the kingdom."

Themes

ParentingTorah

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