By Janis Siegel, JTNews Correspondent
Nationally syndicated radio commentator and writer Dennis Prager spoke of rewards and punishment to an audience of over 240 in early February. The Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder’s Seventh Annual Auction at the West Coast Grand/ Red Lion Hotel in Downtown Seattle attracted the largest turnout ever and raised over $55,000, the best year they’ve had yet.
Organizers had hoped that headliner Dennis Prager, who writes on Jewish topics from his home in Los Angeles, would entice a hearty crowd to drive into the core of the city on what turned out to be a dry, rather mild Super Bowl Sunday evening to eat, drink and bid on auction items—all for Jewish education.
“We wanted to bring awareness about the Cheder through an event and bring it up a notch in terms of appeal,” said Tziviah Goldberg, current director of finance and development at the school—and the former principal. “We wanted someone who had a little bit broader appeal so more people would come to the event and see who we are.”
Prager, who also teaches at the University of Judaism, often appears on national television news shows offering opinion and commentary about the ethics and the morality commonly found in both religious and secular cultures in America.
“He’s a very incisive thinker,” said Goldberg. “He goes to the heart of what we have in common [as Jews] rather than what we disagree about.”
As the time for fundraising drew to a close, the current Cheder principal, Rabbi Yosef Charytan warmed up the crowd by reminiscing about the Cheder in Jewish history.
“The Cheder was the European shtetel’s one-room schoolhouse,” said Charytan, who sounded more like a winning candidate on the campaign trail. “Jewish children would spend time learning Alef Bais, Chumash and Talmud. When the Jews left the shtetels for the golden shores of America, the Cheder became a thing of the past.”
Rebbitzin Chanie Levitin and other community members opened the original Seattle Cheder in 1974. Starting in a basement with seven children and two teachers, they currently teach 100 children and employ 27 teachers.
“Yet today, in Seattle, we have opened the shtetel cheder,” continued Charytan. “Why, you ask? Take a look at the news. Corrupt CEOs, corrupt doctors and lawyers dominate the headlines. What we need today is an educational system for our youth that will produce professionals who are society’s moral compasses, with an unwavering needle pointing toward Mt. Sinai!”
Charytan cited the plight of the Hebrews who were enslaved in Egypt. He credited their successful transition into a unified Jewish nation to their relentless attachment to their Jewish heritage. This, said Charytan, was the key to their success and that is what will continue to make the Cheder successful.
Prager, on the other hand, approached the podium to speak about instilling children with a sense of accountability, gratitude and wisdom. This Yeshiva-trained scholar, who was a Fellow at Columbia University’s School of International Affairs, said that adults must know the difference between merely practicing religion and having a true and personal relationship with a just and loving God.
“Halachah is not an end, it’s a means to an end,” said Prager, recommending that children be encouraged to pray to God with love rather than coercion. “You are not guaranteed a God orientation in your child just because you have raised an observant child. I believe that religion, when done right, is the best vehicle to God, but religion can also be an obstacle to God and an end in itself.”
So how does Prager advise that adults “do religion right”? He recommends letting children know that there is a God who rewards those who commit acts of goodness and punishes those who commit bad deeds. This, he says, gives children peace of mind.
“It’s massively helpful in the raising of a child for them to know there is a just God out there, that good and evil are not determined by you alone, because you are not the source of right and wrong. God is,” he said. “The same rules apply to us as apply to you. Mom and dad are equally accountable to this Supreme Being.”
Another critical element in Prager’s rules for raising children with a love for God has to do with gratitude. In many households, says Prager, where most children have all of their material needs met, in order to be truly happy a child must know gratitude.
“How do you raise a child in an affluent home with gratitude?” asked Prager. “One way is to have your child thank God regularly. Just say it – ‘Thank you God for the bread we eat.’ And saying the English is very important. If I don’t use my native language [when giving thanks], God becomes less real. Jewish prayer is overwhelmingly thankful. It’s praise and thanks.”
Most fundamentally, Prager concluded, wisdom is the real payoff for children when they maintain a close and personal relationship with their Creator.
“Not everybody who believes in God is wise, but there are almost no people who deny God that end up with wisdom,” said Prager as he summed up his remarks. “When you give your child God you give them the indispensable characteristic for attaining wisdom. They can be kind and sweet and nice but it’s hard to be wise.”