Page 60 - HaMizrachi #15 2019 Chanuka USA

Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski

The Secret of

Raising Good

Jewish Children

e are fast approaching a spiritually-barren community. When Bubby said to my mother, “You have
Chanukah, celebrating the we left the confines of our home, we no reason to worry. You have a bracha
Wtriumph of Torah over sec- were in a secular culture. Even my from Zeide.”
ularism. This is of special significance father’s heroic Chassidut was not
to me, having had a wide exposure to enough to resist the pressure of the Even in many frum homes, the father
secularism that, thank G-d, has not community. lights the menorah, sings Maoz Tzur,
compromised my Torah dedication. and after just five minutes, goes about
But there is another crucial factor his usual activities. The Talmud says
1
I was born and raised in Milwaukee, in our survival. My mother was the that lighting the Chanukah menorah
Wisconsin, which had no cheder, no eldest daughter of the Kedushas is a segula (a Kabbalistic protective or
yeshiva, no formal Jewish education. Tzion h”yd, the Rebbe of Bobov. benevolent charm or ritual) to have
I had no frum friends or playmates, When she was a child of six, she children that are Torah scholars. But
except for the octogenarians in my watched my great-grandfather, this does not occur automatically. It
father’s shul. My oldest brother left for Rebbe Shlomo Halberstam, the first requires intense tefillah.
the yeshiva in New York when I was Rebbe of Bobov, light the Chanukah
six, followed just a year later by the menorah. The Rebbe lit the menorah, We will soon be observing Chanukah.
next brother. My two younger brothers then sat silently, with his eyes closed, The challenge from the secular
did not come around until I was eight. meditating. At times, tears rolled community today is every bit as
I attended public school, and what down his face. serious as in the days of Matityahu.
limited friendships I had were with Lighting the menorah should be
non-Jewish kids. “Zeide,” my mother asked. “What are accompanied by intense prayer for our
you thinking about?” Zeide answered, children and grandchildren to be loyal
When my father was asked how he “I’m davening to G-d that you should to the Torah.
was able to raise five frum sons in have good children.” He continued his
Milwaukee, he answered, “I never silent tefillot for half an hour.
left Hornosteiple,” referring to the 1 Shabbat 3b.
Ukranian town in which his father After the Holocaust, my grandmother, Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski is a
and grandfather were Chassidic the Bobover Rebbetzin, came to psychiatrist and rabbi, and founder of
rebbes. True, our home was an oasis America. When the conversation the Gateway Rehabilitation Center in
of Torah and Chassidut, but it was in turned to our attending college, my Pennsylvania

Want to receive HaMizrachi
by email before every chag?

Sign up at
www.mizrachi.org/hamizrachi

60 |