What's an Aleph? | Rabbi YY Jacobson

A very powerful story with very deep relevance today. The Alter Rebbe, the Baal Hatanya, had a young child, his son, Rabeinu Dov Ber. He would be known as the Mitteler Rebbe, who would succeed him, as the second Chabad Rebbe. And the Alter Rebbe wanted to hire a teacher to teach him Aleph-Beis and to begin his Chinuch. So he asked a yungerman, a Talmid Chacham, a very, very pious and special person, Listen to my offer to you. This is how the Alter Rebbe, the Baal Hatanya, phrased the job offer. He said, I have a Mitzvah Teach your child. You have a Mitzvah You need to support your wife and children. Let's exchange a Mitzvah for a Mitzvah. Let's exchange Mitzvos. You will take over my Mitzvah and teach my child Torah, and I will take over your Mitzvah and I'll support your family, in other words, I'll pay you, but that's how the Baal Hatanya phrased the job offer. We're going to exchange a Mitzvah for a Mitzvah. This man was no fool. So he told the Alter Rebbe, he says: It's not a fair exchange. Your side of the deal is very clear, you got to give money to support my family, but you want me to educate your child? You have to know how. I have to know how. He was a smart man. He understood that he could seize the opportunity to get from the Baal Hatanya some pedagogy advice. How? How do I begin teaching? The Alter Rebbe, the Baal Hatanya, looked at him and said, We start teaching Jewish children Aleph-Beis. The first thing we teach a Jewish child is Aleph. It starts with an Aleph. And then, he used to speak with a melody, with a Nigun. So this was the melody, and I'll say it. He says, What is an Aleph? A dot from above, a dot from below, this is an Aleph. A Yud from above, a Yud from below, a line of Yiras Shomayim in the middle, this is an Aleph. The first thing we educate a Jewish child is Aleph. What's an Aleph? Take a look at an Aleph. There's a Yud on the top, there's a Yud on the bottom, and there's a line that connects the two Yuds. That's what I want you to teach my child. There's a Yud on the top, Hashem. There's a Yud, a Yid, on the bottom, that's the Jew. But every single moment we could connect the two, and that's Yiras Shomayim. The line of Yiras Shomayim, the awe, the reverence, the awareness, that I'm in the presence of God. That's the eternal line that connects the two Yuds that they should never be separated, even for a millisecond.