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ed feinstein

Accepting Judaism as a Privilege

Rabbi Ed Feinstein October 16, 1997

One Sunday morning, many years ago, as parents came to pick up their kids from the Hebrew school where I taught, I overheard a conversation. \”How was class?\” A father asked his son.The child began to whine. \”I hate Hebrew school,\” he said. \”It\’s boring and stupid, the teachers are mean, and the kids aren\’t nice. I don\’t want to go any more.\” The father stopped, turned to the kid,and said: \”Listen, when I was your age, I went to Hebrew school and I hated it. It was boring, the teachers were mean, the kids weren\’t nice, but they made me go, and, now, you\’re going to go too!\”

What a tragedy.

To New Beginnings

Rabbi Ed Feinstein October 2, 1997

According to my son, Disney\’s \”The Lion King\” is the greatest film ever made. He saw it three times in the theater,and insisted on playing the soundtrack every morning on our way to school. All the way to kindergarten, we sang the film\’s stirring theme song, \”The Circle of Life,\” until, one morning, I listened to the words.

Make the Time Count

Rabbi Ed Feinstein August 14, 1997

Child rearing, it turns out, is a relatively short-term project. The truth is that we don\’t have them for very long. Eighteen years, that\’s all. Eighteen years, from birth until they move away to Stanford. If your child is 5, you\’ve got 13 years left. If your child is 8, you\’ve got 10 years. If your child is 11,you\’ve got only seven years — just a few years to put them to bed with a story and a song, to make them breakfast, to stick artwork upon the fridge.

Alligators Under

Rabbi Ed Feinstein June 19, 1997

I learned most of my theology not from my teachers but from my children. When my daughter, Nessa, was 3 years old, we had a routine. Each night, I would tuck her into bed, sing our bedtime prayers, kiss her good night and attempt to sneak out of the room. Halfway down the hall, she began to scream, \”Abba!\” An avid reader of Parents magazine, the Torah of parenting, I knew what to do: I walked back to the child\’s room and turned on every light. I looked under the bed. \”No alligator, Nessa.\” I checked the closet. \”No monsters, Nessa.\” I surveyed the ceiling. \”No spiders, Nessa. Now go to bed. Tomorrow is coming, and you\’ve got to get to sleep,\” I\’d say. \”Everything is safe. Good night.\” \”OK, Abba,\” she said, \”but leave the light on.\”

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