Chinuch: Difference between revisions
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Chinuch (Hebrew: חינוך, tran. ''education'') is the obligation upon every father to educate his children how to fulfill mitzvot. This mitzvah applies even before his children reach the age of [[Bar Mitzvah]]/[[Bat Mitzvah]]. The age at which this obligation begins varies according to the Mitzvah. Below are the details of this Mitzvah | |||
==D’Orayta or D’Rabanan?== | ==D’Orayta or D’Rabanan?== | ||
The Mitzvah of Chinuch - to teach Torah to our children - is clearly a Mitzvah D’Orayta as explicitly stated: V’shinantam L’vanecha.<ref>Devarim 6 pasuk 7</ref> However, is the Mitzvah of chinuch - to instruct children to begin performing Mitzvot before they are of the age of Mitzvot - a mitzva D’Orayata or D’Rabanan? | The Mitzvah of Chinuch - to teach Torah to our children - is clearly a Mitzvah D’Orayta as explicitly stated: V’shinantam L’vanecha.<ref>Devarim 6 pasuk 7</ref> However, is the Mitzvah of chinuch - to instruct children to begin performing Mitzvot before they are of the age of Mitzvot - a mitzva D’Orayata or D’Rabanan? | ||
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#Some examples of cases of chinuch are with a lulav and with tzitzit. While the obligation of chinuch is only fulfilled if you give your child a perfectly kosher lulav and pair of tzitzit, you don’t have to give your child lulav hadar. In addition, you also don’t have to teach your child to have kavanah while performing the mitzvah. From this, we can infer that while it is important to teach your child to not perform the mitzvah in a non-kosher way, it is also not necessary to make your child fully enthralled in all aspects of the mitzvah.<ref>Fine, D. "The Mitzvah of Chinuch Explored." Shortvort. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.</ref> | #Some examples of cases of chinuch are with a lulav and with tzitzit. While the obligation of chinuch is only fulfilled if you give your child a perfectly kosher lulav and pair of tzitzit, you don’t have to give your child lulav hadar. In addition, you also don’t have to teach your child to have kavanah while performing the mitzvah. From this, we can infer that while it is important to teach your child to not perform the mitzvah in a non-kosher way, it is also not necessary to make your child fully enthralled in all aspects of the mitzvah.<ref>Fine, D. "The Mitzvah of Chinuch Explored." Shortvort. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.</ref> | ||
#There is a dispute whether a father fulfills his obligation when letting his child use a borrowed lulav for sukkot.<ref>Mishna Brurah 628:28</ref> This question revolves around whether the nature of the obligation of chinuch was to train the child to do mitzvot when he gets older in which case it would suffice or was it that the rabbis imposed an obligation upon the child to do mitzvot before he becomes | #There is a dispute whether a father fulfills his obligation when letting his child use a borrowed lulav for sukkot.<ref>Mishna Brurah 628:28</ref> This question revolves around whether the nature of the obligation of chinuch was to train the child to do mitzvot when he gets older in which case it would suffice or was it that the rabbis imposed an obligation upon the child to do mitzvot before he becomes biblically obligated.<ref>Rav Moshe Feinstein in Igrot Moshe YD 1:224. See Ritva (Sukkah 2b s.v. amar rabbi yehuda) who says that a sukkah above 20 amot is invalid for chinuch and concludes that the mitzvah of chinuch has to be fulfilled in a complete fashion.</ref> | ||
==Until When?== | ==Until When?== | ||
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===Melacha on Shabbat=== | ===Melacha on Shabbat=== | ||
#On Shabbat, a parent cannot tell a kid to do melacha.<ref>Shabbat 121a, Shulchan Aruch O.C. 343:1</ref> This is a biblical prohibition.<ref>Shemot 20:10, Mechilta there, Ramban Sefer Hamitzvot shoresh 14, Rashba Shabbat 153a, Mishkenot Yakov OC 118, Shaar Hatziyun 334:54</ref> | |||
#On Shabbat, a parent cannot tell a kid to do melacha.<ref>Shabbat 121a, Shulchan Aruch O.C. 343:1</ref> This is a | |||
#According to one opinion, you can have a child do melacha for you if it is only an issur derabanan<ref>Turei Zahav as cited in A Parent's Guide to Teaching Children Mitzvot: A Halachic Guide By: Samuel Singer</ref> According to most opinions you may not ask a child to do a melacha for you under any circumstances even melacha derabanan.<ref>Shulchan Aruch O.C. 343:1, A Parent's Guide to Teaching Children Mitzvot: A Halachic Guide By: Samuel Singer </ref> | #According to one opinion, you can have a child do melacha for you if it is only an issur derabanan<ref>Turei Zahav as cited in A Parent's Guide to Teaching Children Mitzvot: A Halachic Guide By: Samuel Singer</ref> According to most opinions you may not ask a child to do a melacha for you under any circumstances even melacha derabanan.<ref>Shulchan Aruch O.C. 343:1, A Parent's Guide to Teaching Children Mitzvot: A Halachic Guide By: Samuel Singer </ref> | ||
#Even though one cannot ask a child to do melacha, if a young child is playing with a toy that makes noise on shabbat, you don’t have to tell the kid to stop if he is too young to understand the laws of shabbat <ref>Yevamot 114a, A Parent's Guide to Teaching Children Mitzvot: A Halachic Guide By: Samuel Singer </ref> | #Even though one cannot ask a child to do melacha, if a young child is playing with a toy that makes noise on shabbat, you don’t have to tell the kid to stop if he is too young to understand the laws of shabbat <ref>Yevamot 114a, A Parent's Guide to Teaching Children Mitzvot: A Halachic Guide By: Samuel Singer </ref> | ||
#But, if a kid is old enough to understand which actions are forbidden and which are allowed to do on Shabbat, then you must stop him from doing melacha based on Chinuch.<ref>Rama O.C. 343:1. A Parent's Guide to Teaching Children Mitzvot: A Halachic Guide By: Samuel Singer </ref> | #But, if a kid is old enough to understand which actions are forbidden and which are allowed to do on Shabbat, then you must stop him from doing melacha based on Chinuch.<ref>Rama O.C. 343:1. A Parent's Guide to Teaching Children Mitzvot: A Halachic Guide By: Samuel Singer </ref> Even if he doesn't understand the positive essence of Shabbat as long as he can understand that certain things are forbidden for Jews they should be trained not to do it.<ref>Mishna Brurah 343:3, Chinuch Habanim Kehilchato 44:8</ref> Some say that this begins from age 2 or 3, some say 3 or 4, and some say 4 or 5.<ref>Pitchei Teshuva 343:7 writes that the age for understanding that certain things are forbidden is age 3. Chinuch Habanim Kehilchato 44:9 quotes Chinuch Habanim Lmitzvot of Rav Neuwirth n. 38 as saying it is 2 or 3 years old, Az Nidbaru 6:57 says it is not below 3 unless he's smart. Hatipul Btinok Bshabbat Vyom tov ch. 17 says it is age 3 or 4. Lastly, he cites the Yavetz (Migdal Oz 3) who says that it is 4 or 5 years old.</ref> | ||
==Holidays== | ==Holidays== | ||
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#Putting a diaper on a baby on Shabbat that has a color strip which changes colors when the baby goes to the bathroom is permitted.<ref>Rav Nissim Karelitz in Chut Shani Shabbat v. 4 p. 287 writes that it is permitted to put a diaper on a baby that is going to change colors when the baby goes to the bathroom and it isn't considered causing your baby to do a melacha of coloring on Shabbat. The reason is that when the diaper is put on there's no change and when the baby goes to the bathroom he is mitasek and there's no issue of causing your child to do a melacha as a mitasek.</ref> | #Putting a diaper on a baby on Shabbat that has a color strip which changes colors when the baby goes to the bathroom is permitted.<ref>Rav Nissim Karelitz in Chut Shani Shabbat v. 4 p. 287 writes that it is permitted to put a diaper on a baby that is going to change colors when the baby goes to the bathroom and it isn't considered causing your baby to do a melacha of coloring on Shabbat. The reason is that when the diaper is put on there's no change and when the baby goes to the bathroom he is mitasek and there's no issue of causing your child to do a melacha as a mitasek.</ref> | ||
#Feeding your child a cookie with letters on it on Shabbat is permitted.<ref>Mishna Brurah on 340:3 writes that it is permitted to give your child a cookie with letters on it even though for an adult it is forbidden to eat it since it will erase the letters. Chut Shani Shabbat v. 4 p. 293 explains that it is permitted since erasing the letters is at worst derabbanan and also some poskim permit it altogether. Also, there's no problem of causing your child to do something forbidden if it is a pesik reisha unless the child realizes that he's doing it for the benefit of the child.</ref> | #Feeding your child a cookie with letters on it on Shabbat is permitted.<ref>Mishna Brurah on 340:3 writes that it is permitted to give your child a cookie with letters on it even though for an adult it is forbidden to eat it since it will erase the letters. Chut Shani Shabbat v. 4 p. 293 explains that it is permitted since erasing the letters is at worst derabbanan and also some poskim permit it altogether. Also, there's no problem of causing your child to do something forbidden if it is a pesik reisha unless the child realizes that he's doing it for the benefit of the child.</ref> | ||
# In theory some permit allowing a child to do something that would otherwise be in violation of a prohibition in order to do a mitzvah. Some say that this is only permitted if the only way to perform the mitzvah would involve violating a prohibition. Others qualify this idea by limiting it to prohibitions that are implied from a positive mitzvah and not an outright mitzvah.<ref>Tosfot Pesachim 88a s.v. s.v. seh states that it is permitted to allow the child to violate a prohibition of eating from a korban pesach without effectively joining in because it is a mtizvah of chinuch to train them to eat korban pesach. Daf Al Hadaf Pesachim 88a summarizes some of the achronim who limit this Tosfot. Chikrei Lev YD 2:145 says that it is only permitted when for an adult it would be permitted and the only prohibition exists since he's a child. If he were to be an adult he would be able to join onto a korban pesach and since he's a child he can't. However, for the mitzvah of chinuch that is permitted. Similarly, the Chatom Sofer Nedarim 36a says that it is only permitted if not for the prohibition it would be impossible for a child to fulfill this mitzvah it is permitted for chinuch. Imrei Binah Shabbat ch. 8 says that it is only permitted for a prohibition that is derived from a positive mitzvah (''isur aseh''). Interestingly, they quote Magen Avraham 343 who quotes something similar from Rabbenu Yerucham and Chatom Sofer notes that the Ran Nedarim seems to dispute this. Lastly, they quote that Rabbi Akiva Eiger 15 allowed letting a child carry his own siddur to shul since it for his own chinuch, while Pri Yitzchak 1:11 disputed this. See also Tzitz Hakodesh 1:19 for an interesting application of this discussion.</ref></ref> | |||
==Sources== | ==Sources== | ||
<references /> | <references /> | ||
[[Category:Lifecycles]] | [[Category:Lifecycles]] | ||
