EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN
CHILDREN OF KINGS
"...Do not break the bones of it" (Exodus 12:46). In the Sefer Hachinuch
(Commandment 16) the reason for this mitzvah not to break the bones of
the Passover sacrifice is discussed. The author states that it is a
subsidiary derived from the basic concept that was explained beforehand,
to remember the miraculous liberation from Egypt. Therefore, on the
night of Passover we are commanded to conduct ourselves like kings and
the children of kings.
He then writes: "It is not respectable for the children of kings and the
councillors of the land to drag bones and break them like dogs. This is
only fitting for poor and starving people. Therefore, when we started to
become a chosen people, a nation of priests and a holy people, and every
year at the same time, it is proper for us to display the great prestige
which we attained at that time. By doing this we arouse the imagination
in order that it will become fixed in our minds forever."
Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky, the Rosh Yeshivah of Ponovez, added to these
words of the Sefer Hachinuch. Although the Passover sacrifice is no
longer conducted as it was in the time of the Temple, its content and
meaning continues to be applicable at all times and in every moment.
It is obligatory upon every Jewish person to conduct himself with great
dignity, as befits the ways of the children of kings. This is something
which must be expressed in all the ways of life: when he lays down and
when he rises up, when he speaks and when he does business, when he
stands and when he walks. Everything has a value and a significance.
Every movement has a meaning. If he does not conduct himself
accordingly, G-d forbid, then it becomes what the Sefer Hachinuch
defined as dragging bones and breaking them "like a dog." Conduct like
that can become a vacuum into which all of a person's spirituality can
disappear.
For example, a Torah student can learn diligently and properly
throughout the seder. Then he goes to the cafeteria to eat. If he does
not conduct himself properly during the meal, G-d forbid, then there can
be formed a vacuum which will swallow everything that he acquired and
achieved during his learning. There is Torah which is specifically
applicable to conduct during the time of eating. He must take care about
numerous laws of Hilchot Derech Eretz (Manners), despite the tendency of
a person to neglectfully trample upon them. Everything can fall into the
vacuum, G-d forbid.
Once Rabbi Issar Zalman Meltzer sent a group of young men to the
Slobodka Zeide, Rabbi Natan Tzvi Finkel, in order that he should lecture
them about ethical conduct, and in this way to "question what is in the
bottle," that is to say, to see what they were about. The young men
stayed by the Zeide for several hours, and afterwards he gave his
opinion about each one of them to Rabbi Issar Zalman.
Among them was one young man who was known as a genius, but it was
precicely him who the Zeide did not praise. He even said to Rabbi Issar
Zalman that "from that young man nothing will come." Rabbi Issar Zalman
wondered how the Zeide could know such a thing. The Zeide answered, "He
does not have any manners (derech eretz). When they were served tea some
sugar fell upon the tablecloth. That young man dipped his finger into
the sugar and stuck it into his mouth."
"From that young man nothing will come," the Zeide had said, and so it
was. After some time the young man was appointed to the position of
Rabbi in one city. Entanglements occurred which compelled him to resign
from the Rabbinate, and he became a lawyer. Then it became known that he
was involved with fraud and he was imprisoned.
(Rabbi Ya'akov Neiman)
