We are now in the “deep end” of summertime, treading comfortably in the gentle ripples of warmer weather and lazier days, of less obligation and more relaxation – or at least most of us.
If they have not already done so, teachers, staff and administrators of many schools are about to return to the essential task of planning for the imminent reconvening of school.
To a group of Diaspora Jewish educators who met recently in Jerusalem, Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin succinctly conveyed the importance of Jewish education: “There will be no Jewish people without good and strong Jewish education. Education is the precondition of a healthy society that learns from the past, applies those lessons to the present, and draws conclusions for the future.”
To the generation of Jewish students who spent their university years in the late 70’s and early 80’s, the Boston-based, Jewish folk/rock music group, Safam, also succinctly conveyed the importance of Jewish education. In addition, they poignantly remind us that one generation always plants, builds and nurtures the foundation for the next.
Of course that generational task has constructed the line of Jewish life that has built the healthy society of which President Rivlin spoke.
Talmud Torah, by Safam
See the children, smiling faces
As the day’s begun
They’re our future, teach them brightly
Blessed every one
Education, obligation
True for everyone
So we study, Talmud Torah
K’neged kulam
And sometimes I know it’s true
You’re too tired to learn
But there’s a spark inside of you
Waiting to return
See the children in those pictures
When this school was young
They’re your parents, loved Talmud Torah
K’neged kulam
See the faces of the founders
Proud of what they’ve done
They were children, just like you are
Blessed every one
Feed the hungry, clothe the naked
Honor Dad and Mom
But to study Talmud Torah
K’neged kulam.
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Click to watch Safam perform the song.
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Shabbat Shalom.
GAJE
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 