23: To honor those who teach and know Torah

The Book of Knowledge
Laws of Torah Study
To honor those who teach and know Torah (Lev. 19:32)

the speakers are parents

the listener is their child

2 years 3 months

because it’s kind

because we want to be kind

because we want you to be kind

because we in this family we are kind people

because we value kindness

because you want people to be kind back to you

because we want you to do good in this world

5 years 8 months

because the other kids need a turn

because they deserve a turn just like you deserve a turn

because it’s important to share

because we all need to share

because if no one is willing to share then the whole world stops

because we don’t want the whole world to stop

because we want you to keep the world spinning

13 years 1 month

because sometimes we lie

because lying is bad but sometimes something else is worse

because if we didn’t lie they would get taken away

because if they got taken away then they’d also get hurt

because we love them and we don’t want them taken away or hurt

because you’re a grownup now

because when you’re a grownup you need to understand grownup things

because sometimes grownups lie

because being a grownup means understanding when to lie

18 years 0 months

because the law is not always right

because these are unprecedented times

because these actually aren’t unprecedented times anymore

because you’re an adult now you know this you’ve seen what’s going on

because we know what’s right

because what is right is what matters

because you need to stick up for what’s right

even if we might get hurt

because your birthday isn’t as important as their safety

because there’s only a small window before we get caught

because we want to sleep well at night

because we want you to sleep well at night

because you shouldn’t sleep well if you allow this

and we want you to sleep well

because we love you

21 years 4 months

because we need your help

because we’re getting older

because it’s getting harder

because we know you want to help too

because we know you were raised right

33 years 8 months

because it’s gotten too hard

because we’ve gotten too tired

because we can’t help everyone

because not everyone gets to escape

because we’re not responsible for the whole world

because what has the whole world done for us?

56 years, 11 months

because we didn’t do our best

we can admit that now

because we were petty and distracted sometimes

because we didn’t tell you those parts

because we didn’t let you see those parts

because we wanted you to do better than what we did

because we knew you would do better than us

because you did and we’re so proud

because we hope your kids do better than you

because we hope everyone’s kids will

because we know that’s silly and it won’t happen but we have to hope

because you don’t hope because you believe

you hope to make it believable

you hope to make it possible

you hope to make it real

you hope and then stop

you hope and then move

and we hope you’ll keep moving

we hope you’ll keep moving

we hope you’ll do it out of kindness