By Yochanan Gordon
From the mouths of infants and sucklings you have founded strength on account of Your foes to put an end to enemy and avenger. (Psalms 8:3)
It’s gonna be the little kinderlach who make Moshiach come (Country Yossi).
We don’t normally associate military prowess with children. In fact, we try to shield our children as much as possible from the reality of war and bloodshed even though it is becoming increasingly more difficult given the open world that we live in. We all agree that children belong ensconced in their classrooms, protected from the dangers and vulnerabilities of the outside world, where they can learn and develop in a healthy environment. Warfare is usually associated with the hands and the feet. The question then is twofold: why does King David associate military might and victory with children and how do they achieve that with their mouths?
I am reminded of the following Midrash: At the time when the letters containing the decree of annihilation were signed and given into Haman’s hands they ran happily until they encountered Mordechai who was walking ahead of them. Mordechai saw three children who were returning from yeshiva after whom he began to run. When Haman and his cronies saw Mordechai running in the direction of the schoolchildren, they too ran towards Mordechai to hear what he was going to ask them.
When Mordechai reached the first child he asked, “What verse did you learn today in yeshiva?” The child responded, “You will not fear sudden terror or the disaster that comes upon the wicked.”
The second child stood up and declared, “This is the verse that I learned today in yeshiva: ‘Hatch a plot, it shall be foiled; agree on action—it shall not succeed for G-d is with us.’”
Then the third child said, “Until you grow old I will remain He; When you turn gray it is I who will carry and I will carry and rescue you.”
The content of the verses spoken and the confidence that these children exuded despite the tenuousness of the Jewish people staring down a nihilistic enemy filled Mordechai with a sense of certainty that the decree of Haman would ultimately fail. These are some of the thoughts that filled me on Sunday morning as I sat amidst a large crowd of parents, grandparents, great grandparents, rebbeim, and a smattering of siblings who had come to celebrate the third grade’s introduction into the study of Mishnayos. The truth is, this isn’t the first time that we have been to such an event. Binyamin, our third grader, is our fourth son and therefore this was the fourth time that my wife and I sat in the crowd in the Diamond Bais Medrash celebrating this momentous milestone with one of our children. The truth is that the production this past Sunday was the exact same production that our previous children put on when they were in the third grade. In fact, this production was founded by Rabbi Brailovsky, a tenured rebbe in YDT who devised this production thirty years ago and it has been put on year in and year out in precisely the same manner. However, despite that, there was something that I noticed this time around that may have been there in the past but perhaps just didn’t grab my attention the way it did this time. The children appeared in groups at center stage belting out a line introducing the authorship of the Mishnayos and the way it was compiled and taught or a line of the opening Mishnah in Berachos. Our son Binyamin’s line was, “And not only that, rather, anytime the Chachomim give a cutoff period of midnight in the performance of a mitzvah, the mitzvah is valid until the morning star rises.” I must say that I felt a certain calmness come over me as I listened to this Mishnah, despite having seen the production a number of times and having learned this Mishnah on my own countless others.
I think it was the context within which this year’s production took place. In a world that is so affixed to the war raging in Eretz Yisrael and really the fragility of global relations and the governmental institutions that for so long presented a sense of security that has lately begun eroding, that made this year’s program so much more impactful. Children have a natural ability to just zone out from whatever is happening around them and become lost within the activity that they are attentive to. As an adult, fully aware of everything that is happening around the world, there was a certain nuance in this year’s program that was reminiscent of the scenario depicted in the aforementioned Midrash where nothing else existed in the lives of these children other than the pasuk that they learned that day in yeshiva and that was comforting to Mordechai and, may I say, to myself as well.
The unique thing about this war in general is that there really is no distinction between infantrymen and civilians. Even our advocates in the media who understand that Israel has no choice but to shoot at their targets who hide in heavily populated areas within schools, hospitals, and other busy centers, don’t fully grasp the notion that there are no civilians in this war effort. The reality in the Palestinian territories is that the children are being educated to kill Jews. As our aspirations from a young age are to learn Torah, perform mitzvos, and make this world into a Divine palace, their aspirations are to maim, rape, steal, and kill Jews. There are enough people who have defected from within that society who have attested to this reality. On the flipside these children stood on the stage like soldiers with the words of the Mishnah their weaponry casting light in the face of darkness and bringing a spirit of calm and restfulness into the aching hearts of their parents and grandparents who are all too aware of what is going on in the world. And like Mordechai in the days of Purim, the words of the Mishnah declared loudly from the mouths of children who never tasted sin were prophetic in the sense that we can forecast that with children who learn with such zeal and intensity, completely unaware of the storm raging all around them, that the war has already been won.
To the Jews there was light, and joy, and gladness and beauty and G-d willing we will experience the sweet taste of salvation very soon in our days.
Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.
