Tazria-Metzora 5762 - April 12, 2002
Editor's Note:
re: why we have children
A father encounters angels in his car... A mother waits for her child to return from a trip the Holocaust Museum... A young prodigy learns the meaning of fatherhood in an Eastern European cheder... A mother has a vision in the operating room as doctors struggle to save the life of her young child... A father of seven discovers the meaning of life... A Chassidic Rebbe describes an illuminating moment with his 3-year-old daughter... The Baal Shem Tov teaches a childless couple how to acquire spiritual children...
Also: what Chassidic teaching says about assisted reproduction, the difference between motherhood and fatherhood, the aquatic environment of the womb, the individuality of life, the selfishness of the child, the spiritual significance of your birthday, the distinction between seed and fruit...
On the week that we study the Torah reading of Tazria-Metzora (Leviticus 12:1-15:33) which opens with laws of childbirth, we have compiled an anthology of stories and essays, "Our Children, Our Selves." Certainly, the question why we have children transcends logical discussion; but we believe that each of these 25 articles sheds some light on a particular facet of this most primal and profound area of our lives.
The dynamics of birth and the covenant of circumcision, the power of speech and the plague of whiteness, contaminating blood and purifying pools of water.
The dynamics of birth and the covenant of circumcision, the power of speech and the plague of whiteness, contaminating blood and purifying pools of water.
I heard the voice of my three-year-old daughter Chanah calling to me, "Father, father, where are you? Father, father, answer me..."
In the movies they're tough guys yelling and screaming at their soldiers. But this platoon sergeant was like a Jewish father watching over his children, making sure they had something to drink and enough tissues to wipe their eyes
In twenty-four articles and stories, mothers and fathers tell of the love and the pain, the joy and the fears, the wisdom and the faith, the mystery and the mysticism of having children
It’s G-d’s world. Everything He gives is good, the sweetest good.
But it is often a good far too great for us to understand. We imagine it is not good, because that’s the only way to make sense of it with our small minds.
Yet the truth is, He gives us all the good we can handle. If we could take more, He would g...
