"Teaching a child the
alef-beis together with the vowels
[778] imbues him with holiness. The
te'amim (musical notes),
nekudos (vowel signs),
tagim (the 'crowns' atop certain letters in the
Sefer Torah) and
osiyos (letters) were given to Moshe Rabbeinu at Mount Sinai at the time that the Almighty said, 'I am the L-rd your G-d.'
[779] Teaching a child these elements infuses within him the power of self-sacrifice. If, however, he is taught without these four elements, this holiness is lacking."
[780]
Notes:
- (Back to text) [This is a reference to the traditional technique of teaching reading. Instead of phonetically joining the sound of a letter and of a vowel, the child is taught first to name the vowel and the consonant, and then to read the resultant syllable; e.g., gimmel is read thus: "Patach-gimmel - ga."]
- (Back to text) [Shmos 20:2.]
- (Back to text) From a sichah of Yud-Beis Tammuz, 5704; see also the sichah of Simchas Torah, 5691.
The Shemitah Year