Parshat Emor opens with a curious redundancy: “Emor el haKohanim… v’amarta aleihem” “Speak to the Kohanim… and say to them” (Vayikra 21:1). Why the repetitive language? Chazal derive from here that adults must ensure children uphold standards. Rav Zalman Sorotzkin points out that this lesson could have been taught without such repetition as the Torah does elsewhere. So why the repetition when it comes to these rules? Rav Sorotzkin explains that there are two forces that shape a child: the home and “the street.” Parents teach, model, and try to instill values. But as children grow, they are increasingly shaped by their peers, their social circles, the subtle (and not-so-subtle) messaging of “what everyone else is doing.” When those two forces are aligned, something powerful happens. The messages a child hears at home are reinforced outside of it. There’s no friction, no confusion, no mixed signals. But when the home and the street diverge, when parents are saying one thing and the surrounding culture is saying something contrary, then the challenge of chinuch becomes much harder. With this backdrop Rav Sorotzkin explains that when a Kohen tells his child he can’t eat treif or he must keep Shabbat, it is a message that every Jewish parent conveys to their child. And when a Kohen child is told that he can’t speak lashon Harah that too is a lesson universally applicable to all Jewish children. But when a young Kohen is told he cannot become tameh so he can’t go near a cemetery, the child might protest. He might say, “But all of my friends are playing ball by the cemetery; why can’t I go too? Why can’t I be like everyone else?” In the case of the special rules of a Kohen, the “street” is not reinforcing the message emanating from home. It may even be undermining it. In response to the challenge of mixed messages that the Torah states: Emor… v’amarta. Say it, and then say it again. When the environment doesn’t support our values, we need to double down at home. It’s an honest recognition of the challenges surrounding educating our children. This Shabbat, when the Teen Minyan joins and leads the 9 AM Minyan in the Sanctuary, we remember the great gift that exists when we have “a street” that reinforces our Jewish values. Our Teen Minyan is “the street” for those teens who regularly attend. At the YIH Teen Minyan kids are influenced by, and gravitate towards, people and ideas that are not working against our values; they are reinforcing our values. Teen Minyan is a Makom Tefilah that kids choose to be at because their friends are there and they feel comfortable there. With the guidance of Rabbi Litton, the Teen Minyan is not just a place where teens attend. It’s a place that they take responsibility: They lead the davening, they lein, and they are depended on. They decide for themselves what their experience will look like. This is not something being done to them. It’s something being created by them.How appropriate it is that we recognize the Teen Minyan on this Parshat Emor because Teen Minyan is where we are fortunate that the “street” mirrors our home values and where peer-influence reinforces parental aspirations. We live in a world where many parents feel like they are fighting an uphill battle because the messages outside the home are clashing with the messages within it. Today let us pause and recognize that our shul in general, and the Teen Minyan in particular, is a space where we don’t need Emor v’amarta because the message is already being echoed, amplified and reinforced. As a parent of 2 Teen Minyan participants, the rabbi assigned to Teen Minyan in my early years in Hollywood, and the current Senior Rabbi of YIH I am grateful for the Teen Minyan. It is a program and a space that has benefited our community for decades and it is worth continuing to nurture, support, and celebrate.
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