Holy Children In A Toxic World - Parshat Vayeitzei

[Music] mazeltov my daughter just graduated with a master's degree in Psychology from arguably the best university in Israel for her particular field nearly all the other students there were from very secular backgrounds in Tel Aviv and Hoda Sheron and she was one of less than a handful of Orthodox women there when someone asked her to speak about her background she said I'm married to an A A Torah scholar who immerses himself in Torah night and day and I have no interest in changing who I am she said I'm Different to you I respect you and I respect what you have to teach me here but I have no interest in becoming like you and if I do become like you then we'll both have lost because I treasure my religious values and my way of life and you need skilled Orthodox women Professionals in this particular field she told me that she would never even dreamt of doing this master in such an environment had it not been for her upbringing our house thank God has always seen A procession of shabas guests of all shapes sizes and Persuasions the weird and the wonderful you can bring up your children in one of two ways one alternative is to try and insulate them totally to cut yourself off to the maximum degree from any negative lures of the secular world but even this might not be hematic enough alternatively you can face the challenges of the modern world and give your children a pride and a love of Torah Judaism and hope and pray very hard that you'll inoculate them against the cesspools of society there's no guarantee in either Choice RAB Yakov ketki comments on this week's Torah portion that Yakov learned two toras so to speak one was the teachings of his father yok which he learned in the first 63 years of his life this was a Torah where father and son learned together in an atmosphere hermetically sealed from the corruption of Canan of Canaan however to survive the spiritually toxic environment of Khan in the company of laan Lavan and his cohorts Yakov Jacob needed the Torah of Shem and AA for Shem had lived together with the generation of the flood and AA had lived together with those who built the Tower of bville Babel yakov's sojourn of 14 years in the Yeshiva of Shame and AA inured him to the spiritual dangers of Karan to be a Jewish parent in today's world is an unprecedented challenge to succeed we also need those two aspects of Torah we need the unshakable htic commitment and faith in the Torah that was given to us at Sinai we need to study it with all our strength and fulfill all its Mitzvah its Commandments down to their finest details and not give way and we also need the Torah of Love of Tolerance and of compassion we need to be there for our children with unconditional love however difficult life may be for them we must Inspire and we must be inspired and with these two toras and with a lot of prayer and the help of Hashem will protect our nearest and dearest from the worst that the world has to [Music] offer