Not in the Mood? So What!

Dennis Prager told about the time he was in fourth grade, when his rebbi said it was time to daven minchah and Prager said he was not in the mood.

The European born rebbi considered his feelings for a moment and then responded, “So what?”

These two words were pivotal in Prager's future attitudes.  He said he learned that behavior matters more than feeling.

"If you're going to act on mood, you're not going to be a good person."

Children - Seen but not Heard

In a previous post: here I quoted Dennis Prager who said we should not be giving children equal status to adults.  I have since heard a story related by Rabbi Manis Friedman about a 14 yr old boy who was thrown out of yeshiva for chutzpa.

MF asked the boy what he was going to do about this. The boy said he would be going back to yeshiva.

MF asked how?! The boy said he wouldn't do it again.

MF asked: "How will you convince the hanhala and why won't you be chutzpadik again? If you think the teacher is stupid, you'll say it again!"

So the boy asked, "What should I do?"

MF wasn't sure this was remotely possible but he said, "You have to be convinced that you are not entitled to an opinion. You are 14 years old and not entitled. Not that you shouldn't voice an opinion, but you are not entitled to one.

The boy asked in astonishment, "I can't have an opinion?!"

MF: "You can have one, but nobody has to hear it, consider it, or obey it. You're not entitled to it. You're just practicing. When a teacher asks you for your opinion, he's helping you practice. And you have to convince your friends of this too."

 

Surprisingly, the boy did.

 

***

A 14 yr old attends a lecture and says, "It was good, although I didn't agree with everything the speaker said."

 

Parents today are likely to be proud of their intelligent child who expresses such a mature critique.  However, asks MF, what are the chances they did not understand what was said rather than disagreed? Probably 98% of the time they didn't understand, but they already have an opinion and they feel entitled to agree/disagree. It's very dangerous. The relationship between student and teacher is terrible.

***

A high school teacher recently told me that the hanhala asks the students to tell them what they "feel" about each teacher.  If I didn't hear it directly from a teacher, I'd find it hard to believe this is going on in a frum school.  Hashem yirachem!

 

A Different Perspective on Aging

Rebbetzin Tzippora Heller said that complimenting someone by saying they look ten years younger than their age is like saying a person has a BA when they actually have a Phd! By that she means, the older you are the more wisdom you should have accumulated, so saying you look young is the equivalent of discounting your additional years of wisdom.

Dennis Prager said he got the most hate mail after he wrote a column criticizing a 12 year old girl for addressing the Democratic National Convention and ridiculing the Vice President.  He wrote that it's typical of liberal society today to equate children with adults and to think that a child has a right to the floor, just like an adult, even though a child has not accomplished anything of note and has no wisdom.

On a more positive note, someone observed it used to be that a Bubby looked Bubby-like but nowadays we have young looking Bubbies (some of whom are still having children of their own).  Their comment was that this is a foretaste of Yemos Ha'Moshiach when death will be eradicated and even before that, the pasuk says a "naar" (young person) will die at 100.