Naima Jewish Preparatory School

Contact Us Jewish Studies at Naima JPS The Biblical Mitzvah of family education is both simple and explicit in terms of transferring Torah values. Teach them thoroughly to your children, speaking of them when you are at home and away, morning and night

Maimonides thus defines Jewish study as a concern for both parents and children. The parent must provide for the study of the child while also attending to his own study. It is a family Mitzvah , a family commandment and concern. Thus throughout Jewish tradition, beginning with the commandment to retell the Passover story to our children, this is what G-d did for me when I went out from Egypt (Exodus 13:8); there is repeated concern for the education of the entire family.

Given that formal Jewish education of children was transferred, in the main, from the house to the school and is now often left entirely in the hands of the school, the impact is telling. Himmelfarb writes: Without the encouragement and reinforcement from the home, it is extremely unlikely that Jewish schools will have any lasting impact on their students. If the home provides the necessary encouragement and reinforcement, Jewish schooling can increase the level of Jewish commitment in the house. These two institutes need each other. The effort of one without the other is likely to produce only slight results.