Family Connections - Rabbi Doniel Staum

i want to share something a little personal i was listening to a lecturer last year he was talking about the importance of grandchildren speaking to their grandparents speaking about their past and he noted a very famously cited new york times article which talks about the fact that when children know where their roots are they have a higher self-esteem they have more of a sense of purpose and of mission and how much more so for claustro and i watch more so at the time before pesach and i thought what a beautiful idea to have my four older children resolve four grandparents to interview their grandparents and i have to admit we didn't get to all of them yet but one of them we did our oldest son shalom interviewed my father-in-law who wasn't well last year 12-minute interview a list of questions that i prepared my father was very uncomfortable with it and i was able to convince him hashem to give that interview um what did your parents do for work and can you talk a little bit about your parents my father when he came from europe after the war well he went through a concentration camp he came here that interview is now invaluable because my father-in-law passed away a few weeks ago i mention it because it's such a powerful thing a powerful form of connection that we can have i would do anything to be able to interview my grandparents and i would do anything to be able to show that interview to my children my children rizzo had to know my grandmother a little bit at the end of her life she passed away a few years ago she was already weaker but to be able to give over that sense of continuity which is what the whole law has about and what claudi's soil is built on there's so much of an emphasis on family so much of an emphasis on bias on the home and so i just want to throw out my encouragement that we encourage our children if anybody is interested i'm happy to share the questions that i prepared it could be any questions it doesn't have to be anything profound maybe our children's grandparents are no longer from the war but just what they went through when they were young the types of things that they would want their children and grandchildren to know about them and the lessons they've learned along the way the more that we can create and bridge those connections to the past the more our children recognize the beauty of their heritage not just of claudi's role of course but the beauty of our heritage and our connections to the past within our own family we should all be socha to be able to give over and to inculcate and to instill in our children all of our values and all of our dreams to be to see the nachas as they grow into their own families and build their own families [Music]