It All Depends on the Chinuch of Our Children

 In the special Tefila that we recite on Chanuka in the Amida and Bircat Hamazon, Al HaNisim, we find a statement that reveals what the Greeks truly had in mind in their desire and effort to destroy Israel as a Holy Nation. “When the evil Kingdom of Greece stood up against Your people Israel to cause them to forget your Torah…”

HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Adas, dean of Yeshivat Porat Yosef, shared a powerful insight. He said that it’s a known fact that its impossible for Torah to be forgotten by adults. What one learns well in his youth will remain with him forever. Even if the Greeks forbade Jews from learning Torah, they could still manage to review sections to themselves or to learn from memory.

Therefore, we must conclude that the plot of the Greeks to cause our Holy Torah to be forgotten would come about by closing the Bet Raban, the schools for little Jewish children. In that way, generations would grow up void of any Torah knowledge, which would lead to the demise of Judaism.

There is a general rule about the future of a nation. It all depends on the education of the youth. This idea is brought forth in the Gemara in a story about the great chacham, Rebbe Chiya. He devised a plan to ensure that Torah would not be forgotten. He planted cotton and made from it nets and hunted with them deer. From its meat, he fed young orphans and from its skins he made parchment to write the five books of the Torah and the six orders of the Mishna. He went to a place that was devoid of rebbes who could teach children Torah and he started a Talmud Torah for little children. He taught each book of the Torah to one child and each order of the Mishna to six different children. Each of the children taught the other children that which Rebbe Chiya taught him. When he finished, he said, “the Torah learning of children will ensure that Torah will not be forgotten among the Jewish people.

Because of this mindset that was clearly shared by the Chashmanaim, soon after they defeated the giant Greek army, they opened many Talmud Torahs and began to educate many young children. Further, to emphasize the essence of this miracle, they established a yom tov and gave it the name Chanukah, to be a reminder that the main victory against the Greeks was to return the crown of Chinuch- education of children to its appropriate place.

There is a further important connection between Chanukah and Chinuch that we glean from the efforts of Rebbe Chiya. The Torah obligates the Cohanim to use only the purest and cleanest olive oil for the Menorah in the Bet HaMikdash. Only the first few drops of oil squeezed from an olive were kasher for the Menorah because it was free of any impurity no matter how small. Rebbe Chiya understood from the olive oil and the plot of the Greeks in the Chanukah story, in order to ensure that Torah would not be forgotten from the Jewish people he not only had to focus on the children, but he had to make sure their Chinuch would be pure. His great effort to grow cotton to make nets to catch the dear in order to feed the orphans and use the skins for the parchment, etc. was meant to ensure that the entire Chinuch process was done completely for the Sake of Heaven.

It comes to teach us that for Torah to truly take hold in the hearts of Jewish children, not only do the teachers need pure hearts and intent for the sake of Heaven, but all aspects of the Talmud Torah need to be for the sake of Heaven.