As we mark both the start of the New Year and the first anniversary of the horrific attacks of October 7, we acknowledge just how hard the past year has been. Through every heartbreak—and there have been so, so many—we have endeavored to find hope and moments of light. I am more grateful than ever before to work with Jewish day schools and yeshivas, where joy, light, and hope are ubiquitous.
During this season of appreciation, I personally want to thank all who make our schools full-time centers of Jewish joy: security guards who welcome our students each morning with smiles, teachers who embue their lessons with wisdom and patience, administrators who balance heavy loads and still manage to stop for a high-five, board members and donors who allocate hours of personal time and resources towards communal needs, parents who invest in and entrust our schools with their children. Your dedication quite literally makes joy possible.
Most important, I want to thank the thousands of students whose curiosity, enthusiasm, and potential helps us imagine a better world. These children provide hope at dark times for the Jewish people. We have needed them more than ever this year.
The Talmud uses my favorite wordplay in Berachot 64a in talking about students, and this selection has been incorporated into the conclusion of our daily and Shabbat liturgy:
אָמַר רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר אָמַר רַבִּי חֲנִינָא; תַּלְמִידֵי חֲכָמִים מַרְבִּים שָׁלוֹם בָּעוֹלָם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר; וְכׇל בָּנַיִךְ לִמּוּדֵי ה' "וְרַב שְׁלוֹם בָּנָיִךְ, אַל תִּקְרֵי "בָּנָיִךְ" אֶלָּא "בּוֹנָיִךְ
Rabbi Elazar said that Rabbi Ḥanina said: Torah scholars increase peace in the world, as it is said: “And all your children [banayikh] shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children” (Isaiah 54:13). Do not read your children [banayikh], but your builders [bonayikh].
Our children—both Torah scholars and those struggling with alef bet or trigonometry--are indeed the builders of our future. They are the ones who light the way to a brighter tomorrow. May Isaiah’s vision of great peace soon be with us all, in North America, in Israel, and throughout the world.
Wishing you a shanah tovah u’metukah, a good and sweet new year,
Paul Bernstein