Some parental obligations TB Kidushin 29

With today’s daf TB Kidushin 29 we leave the world of kinyanim, acquisitions, and begin discussing who is commanded to observe what mitzvot. The Mishnah is very famous because it creates the classic discussions which parent is obligated to observe which mitzvah and which mitzvot men and women are obligated to observe and which mitzvot women are free from the observance. I am not going to defend some of the positions. Obviously, these discussions have to be understood in the context of the time. When appropriate, I’ll show how the status of women has changed in the modern era and how that impacts Jewish law.

The Gemara provides those mitzvot a father is obligated with regard to his son. “According to this interpretation, we learn in this mishna that which the Sages taught in a baraita: A father is obligated with regard to his son to circumcise him, and to redeem him if he is a firstborn son who must be redeemed by payment to a priest, and to teach him Torah, and to marry him to a woman, and to teach him a trade. And some say: A father is also obligated to teach his son to swim. Rabbi Yehuda says: Any father who does not teach his son a trade teaches him banditry [listut]. The Gemara expresses surprise at this statement: Can it enter your mind that he actually teaches him banditry? Rather, the baraita means that it is as though he teaches him banditry. Since the son has no profession with which to support himself, he is likely to turn to theft for a livelihood. This baraita accords with Rav Yehuda’s interpretation of the mishna.” (Sefaria.org translation) A close reading of the list of mitzvot reveals the lifecycle order.

Teaching your child, both boys and girls, to swim is a mitzvah because this knowledge could save his/her life. I would even encourage every young person and adult who is able to take a lifeguarding course. If swimming could save a person’s life, how much more so could a lifeguard. Today there is a shortage of lifeguards and that puts so many people’s lives in danger unnecessarily.

When it comes to preparing children to enter the real world, ultra-Orthodox secular education is scandalous. We’ve been reading about the schisms in Israel between different groups of citizens . In today’s New York Times there is an article entitled “’Wounds Will Need to Be Healed’: Collisions in a Fractured Israel” The article describes how yeshiva study impacts this schism. “A fast-growing minority, the Haredim, as the ultra-Orthodox are known in Hebrew, are perceived to be reshaping Israeli society while doing too little to either protect it, through military service, or pay for it, through taxation. The employment rate of Haredi men is just 56 percent because many of them study religious law instead of working, although many of their wives are in the work force.” (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/11/world/middleeast/israel-protests-judicial-crisis.html?searchResultPosition=1)

Their educational system impacts their poverty rate.  “The Ultraorthodox community is considered to be “poor by choice” – namely, the men in this community are expected to learn Jewish subjects and not to work. As a result, the Ultraorthodox community is one of the poorest sectors in Israel, with a poverty rate of more than 50% (Kliner-Kasir and Tsachor-Shai, 2017).May 12, 2023” (https://www.google.com/search?q=The+poverty+level+of+the+ultra+Orthodox+in+Israel&sca_esv=564367827&sxsrf=AB5stBjJzaQMJGX6ubQWIR1xA5x3n-e6Pg%3A1694445408867&ei=YC__ZOnENMmYptQPpsisuAg&ved=0ahUKEwjp9L6F7aKBAxVJjIkEHSYkC4cQ4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=The+poverty+level+of+the+ultra+Orthodox+in+Israel&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAaAhgBIjFUaGUgcG92ZXJ0eSBsZXZlbCBvZiB0aGUgdWx0cmEgT3J0aG9kb3ggaW4gSXNyYWVsMggQIRigARiLAzIIECEYoAEYiwNI_RlQAFiQCnAAeAGQAQCYAYgBoAGIAaoBAzAuMbgBA8gBAPgBAeIDBBgAIEGIBgE&sclient=gws-wiz-serp)

To maintain their community, the ultraorthodox parties demand the coalition to provide financial support without contributing their fair share. Apparently not only do liberal streams of Judaism pick and choose which mitzvot, they observed, so do the ultraorthodox. By not teaching their children so they can earn a living, it is as though they are teaching him banditry.