Parashat Hayeh Sara- Education – Around the Clock, Around the Year
Parashat Hayeh Sara begins with Abraham Abinu’s return home after the emotional experience of Akedat Yishak. God had tested Abraham by commanding him to sacrifice his son, Yishak, and Abraham took his son to designated location and prepared to do as he was told. God then appeared to Abraham, commanded him to withdraw his sword, and promised to reward him and his descendants for his display of unconditional obedience. Here, in Parashat Hayeh Sara, we read that Abraham returned home to find that his wife, Sara, had died. He immediately set out to purchase a suitable burial plot, and buried his wife.
One person is conspicuously absent from the story told in the beginning of our Parasha – Yishak. Curiously, Yishak "disappears" after the Akeda, and does not come back onto the stage until it is time for him to get married and Abraham sends his servant to find a suitable wife. Where did Yishak go?
The Sages teach that immediately after the Akeda, Abraham sent his son to learn in a Yeshiva. He did not bring Yishak home with him; he sent him to spend some time engaged in intensive learning.
Abraham’s decision contrasts starkly with commonly accepted parenting norms practiced today. Parents today give their children some time off whenever any kind of issue arises. Whenever there is some problem, the feeling is, the children need a break. But this was not Abraham’s approach. The Akeda was, without doubt, a difficult experience for Yishak. And yet, Abraham did not bring him home for a vacation so he could spend time relaxing. He understood that to the contrary, the spiritual charge injected by the Akeda experience needs to be maintained, and not be allowed to wane. Allowing Yishak some "time off" could have potentially caused him to lose the inspiration gained at the Akeda. Thus, what Yishak needed was not a vacation, but rather an intensive period of Torah learning.
Imagine a person who puts a water kettle on the fire, and just before it boils, he takes it off the stove. He then puts it back on, only to take it off again before it reaches the boiling point. Needless to say, the water will never boil in this fashion.
The same is true of spiritual growth. We have to stay "on the fire," and keep our children "on the fire," throughout the year and throughout the week. All too often, children leave school in June and return in September with half the knowledge and religious commitment they had gained during the previous school year. The two-month break leaves them "off the fire" and allows them to "cool." Many times, teachers need several months in the beginning of the school year just to bring students back to where they had been in June.
This is not to say that vacations aren’t allowed, or even that they aren’t necessary. Understandably, our children cannot be expected to maintain the standards that Abraham set for Yishak. But breaks from school cannot turn into breaks from Torah education. Even during vacation, a level of religious intensity must be maintained, each and every day. Otherwise, our children will never reach the "boiling point," the level of Torah commitment that we want and expect them to achieve.
