(or
Who Is Truly Qualified to Be an Educator?)

"I would like to tell you a story that takes place in another country.

There lives a family consisting of the father, Mordechai; the mother, Rivka; their eldest son, Ari; their daughter, Esther; and their youngest son, Srulik. Living with them is Grandfather Abraham, who is seventy years old. He is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.

It is morning. Everyone has left for work or school. Rivka has gone to the market, leaving only little Srulik and Grandfather Abraham at home. The grandfather sits comfortably in his wheelchair, neatly dressed, holding his sacred books, ready to read them.

Meanwhile, Srulik is playing with a ball in the room.

As Grandfather Abraham reaches to open one of his books, his glasses slip from his hands and fall to the floor. He stretches out his arm to pick them up, but they are beyond his reach. He realizes that, for the next three hours, he will be completely helpless. Overcome with sadness, he bursts into tears.

Hearing the sobs, little Srulik runs over to him.

'Grandpa, why are you crying?' he asks.

'Oh, it's nothing,' the old man replies. 'Just hand me my glasses.'

Srulik picks up the glasses and gives them back to him. The grandfather smiles and resumes reading. Soon afterward, Rivka returns from the market. Still puzzled, Srulik tells her that Grandpa had been crying.

'Why?' he wonders. And if he could express his thoughts fully, he would add: *Can anyone really cry over something so insignificant?*

Later that day, Esther comes home from school. She rushes to her room, throws herself onto the sofa, and begins to sob uncontrollably. Rivka follows her and gently asks what has happened.

Between sobs, Esther manages to say, 'Everyone used to call me the princess of the class. Now they tear up my notebooks and say I'm nobody.'

Trying to comfort her, her mother replies, 'My dear, is something so silly really worth crying over?'

At noon, fifteen-year-old Ari returns home. When the family calls him in for lunch, he remains standing outside with tears in his eyes.

His father asks, 'Why are you crying? What happened?'

Ari answers through his tears, 'A girl treated me terribly. She won't even look at me anymore. She pretends not to hear me when I speak to her.'

His father listens and then says kindly, 'What foolishness! Crying over a girl? You'll meet another one tomorrow.'

A little later, Rivka returns home upset after visiting a friend.

'They laughed at my dress,' she says through her tears. 'They said it looked like a rag, even though it's the best dress I own.'

Mordechai looks at her in surprise.

'You're crying over a dress?'

He cannot promise to buy her another one; they simply cannot afford it. As he reflects on this, another thought troubles him. Other men drive to work in their own cars, while he—how humiliating!—must take the bus every day. The shame fills his eyes with tears.

Grandfather Abraham watches him thoughtfully.

'In my day,' he says to himself, 'no one owned a private car. What is so terrible about taking the bus? Can someone really cry because he doesn't own a car?'

Meanwhile, little Srulik is crying again.

He is frightened because he believes a devil is hiding behind the door. His mother opens it and shows him that no one is there. Yet Srulik continues to cry, asking only to be held in her arms.

All tears are bitter.

Whoever understands this truth has the ability to educate children. Whoever does not understand it is not qualified to be an educator."