Is it possible to teach children to appreciate the world?
ANSWER:
Absolutely! That's where it should be taught, and you should teach a child and tell him. Isn't it beautiful that the sun is shining now? Explain the benefits of the sun. In the summer time the sun warms you, walk on the sunny side of the street, and walk on the sunny side of life. The sun gives vitamins to you as it hits your skin; the sun gives you light, and it's all free energy, no landlord will send you a bill. Con Edison won't send you a bill for the daytime light.
It's so beautiful the sunlight; it's a moshol of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The gemara says that the sun is a moshol of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, just like the sun floods the world with light, happiness, and joy, so does Hakadosh Baruch Hu. You can teach children to enjoy sun - we have to teach ourselves too, by the way, let's enjoy the sun. You make the biggest brocho in davening on the sun, doesn't it show the hypocrisy among us? The longest brocho on davening is on the sun, baruch ata Hashem yotzer ohr, and it concludes yotzer ha'meoros, and the malochim are so excited over the sun that they say, kadosh, kadosh, kadosh bra'ash gadol...with excitement! And we who are the recipients of all this, we're not interested, we're asleep.
So there's a lot of work to be done, on children and on ourselves.
Good Shabbos To All
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures. To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
Important Numbers
