The Gaon Rabbi Shmuel Stern on the Virtue of Educating Children

The Gaon Rabbi Shmuel Stern shlit"a (may he live long and good days), head of the 'Nachalei Netzach' institutions and one of the veteran students of our teacher, the holy Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a, in a wonderful lesson on the virtue of educating children.

The lesson was delivered at the end-of-the-year party in honor of the Torah, titled 'Your Fruits are Sweet,' organized by the 'Emunat Tzion' Talmud Torah (religious elementary school), and it moved everyone present in the hall.

"I heard a sermon on Tisha B'Av (the ninth of Av fast day) that can be linked to the Torah study of children. It is told in the Gemara (Talmud) Yoma about Nicanor, who went to Alexandria in Egypt and brought from there two gates for the Beis HaMikdash (Holy Temple). On the way back, there was a storm and the ship was about to sink; the captain told him that one gate must be thrown overboard," Rabbi Stern began his words.

"They threw one gate, yet the sea continued to rage. The captain said that the second one must also be thrown. Nicanor answered him, 'If you throw the second gate, throw me along with it.' The captain saw that he was insistent and did not throw it, and the storm ceased. They arrived at the port of Jaffa, and behold, the second gate was standing at the side of the ship."

"When they refurbished the Temple, they did not replace Nicanor's gates with gold ones like the others, so that they would remember the mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) of that Jew."

"From here we learn that if one practices mesirus nefesh (self-sacrifice) for a certain thing, they see Siyata D'Shmaya (Heavenly assistance)."