This week's parsha, Emor, begins with Hashem telling Moshe that he should "speak to the Kohanim and he should say to them" the relevant laws of spiritual impurity. Our sages point out the superfluous language in the verse, you should "speak" and you should "say", the deduce from this that the adults are commanded not only to watch themselves but to also watch their children from becoming spiritually impure.

This directive to educate our children is a very important aspect in Judaism and it extends beyond "book smart" and educating our children in Jewish Law. Education includes teaching our children the proper conduct and how to act and treat other people. It is much easier to educate our children properly with "book smarts" but in the area of life it becomes much more difficult. Even if you are not very smart or educated yourself, you can certainly hire proper teachers and rabbis to educate your child in "what it says". We have the ability to pass off the responsibility to others more suited to fulfill this aspect of education, but when it comes to proper behavior, the responsibility falls squarely on us as parents, grandparents and siblings. This education doesn't depend on what we say or teach our children but it depends on how we act ourselves. Do we treat people properly? How do we speak to people? How do we conduct ourselves? We can "speak and educate" until we are blue in the face but our children can see straight through empty words if we don't practice what we preach. During these times this becomes especially challenging as we have heightened exposure to our children. They become more acutely aware of how we are as people throughout life. They see us day in and day out in many different situations, which normally they may not. They are exposed to all of the wonderful traits we have but at the same time are faced with a very stark picture of who we are and how we act, and let's be honest we all have our off moments. In normal times we may be able to hide our flaws but now it becomes much more difficult. We need to embrace the situation as an unprecedented opportunity to "educate" our children, we can show them the proper way to act and treat people day in and day out.

Shabbat Shalom,

Heath