Our guest blogger this week is school president Patrick Essiminy who offered the following Dvar Torah at Akiva’s Annual General Meeting on Tuesday morning.
Parashat Toldot – Nurturing the individual.
This week’s parasha is Toldot, which means the descendants. In this parsha, we focus on the descendants of Itzhak and on themes that are still relevant today: difficulty having children, prosperity, recession, rivalry amongst siblings and education.
In Chapter 25, verse 27 the parsha says: The boys grew up and their differences became recognizable. Eisav was a man who knew how to trap, a man of the field. Yaakov was an honest person, dwelling in tents.
Rashi teaches us that until the age of 13 it was impossible to distinguish between Eisav and Yaakov, but as of that age, the distinctions were apparent: Eisav was fascinated by hunting and Yaakov by studying. From this verse, we appreciate that differentiated learning must be implemented at a very young age and the differences and strengths of each child must be considered carefully. As it says in the book of Proverbs 22:6, Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.
This concept is of particular relevance to Akiva school. Day in and day out, our team of educators strives to provide our children with the best education suited to each child’s style of learning, and to transmit the values that are dear to our school. We know how each and every parent is passionate about their child’s education and we are here to make sure that this passion is shared every step of the way.
Shabbat Shalom
