Teaching the Alef-Beis and Nekudos separately, engraves its holiness into the children. The Rebbe writes to an educator who asked the question about how to teach children to read:
"It is obvious that one must teach children how to read by first teaching them the letters and the Nekudos separately, as it is a well known fact as to how much the Gedolei Yisroel as well as our saintly Rebbeim "waged wars" for this purpose, to engrave into the children the holiness of the Alef-Beis letters and the holiness of the Nekudos."
Preface
The Alter Rebbe once summoned a
young disciple of the Maggid and said to him in his customary chant: I have the
mitzva of "ושננתם לבניך" (Teach them
to your children). You have the mitzva of sustaining and providing for your
family. Let us make an exchange. I will give you what you need to fulfill your
mitzva and you will teach my son (who was later the Mitteler Rebbe).
Then the Rebbe explained the
method of instruction: The first thing is to teach the letters, alef, beis and
so on.
What is an alef? A dot above, a
dot below and a line between - this is an alef. A child must know that the alef
of Torah is a yud above, a yud below, and a line of faith that joins them. Another
version: A Yud above - this is the soul; a yid (Jew) below - this is the body;
a line of Yir'as Shamayim (fear of Heaven) in the center. (Hayom
Yom, 8 Adar-I)
The Alter Rebbe is hereby setting the
goal of teaching Alef Beis to a child: is not merely to provide him with a “reading
tool”, but rather, to teach him what is the inner significance of the Alef too,
thereby instilling Yir’as Shamayim into the delicate mind and heart of the
child,
Consequently, we must choose the
correct method in teaching the Alef Beis to the child, so that the desired goal
is achieved.
MAKE SURE YOUR CHILD IS LEARNING THE CORRECT WAY -
LINK BELOW IS A PDF DOWNLOAD COMPILED AND PREPARED
BY RABBI LEVI GOLDSTEIN
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