DEUT1683 Rabbi Dosa ben Horkinas said: … children's talk … removes a man from the world. Pirkei Avot, Perek III, mishnah 14. There is always a wide gulf between the generations. The older father or grandfather represents an age gone by; no one is interested any longer in the way things were done in his time. He is invariably, inevitably "old-fashioned." What, indeed, can he have in common with the younger generation? As a rule, very little, unless, wishing to be "modern" at all costs, he learns to manage "children's talk": he comes to discuss baseball standings, the latest movies, etc. No member of our people, however, need be reduced to such a state. If he gives his children a traditional Jewish education, and they in turn transmit it to their children, he can always talk with the young ones about something ever fresh and timely in Bible or Talmud. Grandchildren and grandparents then have Torah and Jewish life in common. "Ask your father, and he will inform you; your grandfathers, and they will tell you" [this verse]. Indeed, this sharing of values and ideas truly reinstates grandfather, not as the tolerated "old man," but as the revered and respected head of the family, the fountainhead and source of tradition.
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