A to Z : A Whole New Way

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A to Z: A Whole New Way

It’s too bad here in our society we have missed the boat so bad when it comes to teaching our children. In the Hebrew ways of teaching the children, they learn spiritually while learning in the physical realm. To assist the memory and make learning more attractive, words were associated with letters. The alphabet was used as a religious and ethical teaching tool. The initials G and D together meant to be good to the poor. In so learning, why is the foot of G turned toward the D? It’s taught that it’s the job of the righteous to run after the poor to help them. Then why is the foot of D turned towards G? This is to indicate that the poor should reach out to his helper. Why is the “face” of the D turned away from the G? This teaches the child that charity should be performed in “secret” so as not to shame the person receiving it.

Then there is K and R. K is the first letter in the word for Holy. Of course R is the first letter in the Hebrew word for wicked. So why does K turn its face away from R? YHVH says he cannot look upon the wicked is why. Then why does the foot of K turn toward the R? This is because YHVH says if the wicked repent, then he will give them a crown like his own. The next question is, so why does the leg of the K hang detached? If the wicked repent, he can enter through the opening and get to be with YHVH forever (Olam Haba in Hebrew). In the elementary schools it was the aim of the Hebrews to give the children instruction in the Hebrew language “and” the Torah. In studying the Torah (first 5 books of the O.T.), it was the book of Exodus that was studied and learned first. You may wonder why not Genesis? It is said that because the children are pure and the sacrifices are pure, let the pure come and occupy themselves with the things of the pure. You can be sure that YHVH has a different perspective on the matter than we’d see.

Students were classified into four types. There are four qualities in disciples: he who quickly understands and quickly forgets, his gain disappears in his loss; he who understands with difficulty and forgets with difficulty, his loss disappears in his gain; he who understands quickly and forgets with difficulty, his is a good portion; he who understands with difficulty and forgets quickly, his is an evil portion. Another characterization is the four qualities of those that sit before the sages. They are compared to a sponge which soaks up everything, a funnel which lets things in one end and it goes out the other, a strainer which lets the wine pass out and keeps the dregs, and a sieve which lets out the bran and retains the fine flour. Thus we can see how the Hebrew ways look at education both in adults and in children. We are more interested in teaching our children to be the whiz of the class in the physical realm. But what about their spiritual lives? The scriptures say to train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he won’t depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). I guess that means we have a lot of kids out there that won’t depart from learning how to turn a quick buck, be the smartest, the prettiest, the most liked, and yet be overall failures and not even know it! Shalom.