Parenting in Judaism

Quoted by Rabbi Noam Raucher...

A thought about Jewish parenting By Edward Feinstein (As if it needed to be said!)

How central is child-rearing to the heart of Jewish spirituality? There is no word for “parenting” in Hebrew. “Parents,” in Hebrew, are horim. The noun abstract would have to be “Torah.” Torah, the very name of the sacred tradition itself, is the best semantic equivalent of “parenting.” This has profound implications. It means, first, that the Jewish tradition could not separate a discrete set of skills and techniques that make for successful parenting. For all its attention to children and education, there is no tractate of Talmud, no section of the Shulhan Arukh, devoted to solely to parenting skills or strategies. The entire spiritual tradition is about parenting. The way to successful parenting is to absorb the full wisdom of the tradition. Second, it means that no activity is more sacred, more revered, than parenting. To parent a child is to do Torah. Parenting brings God into the world.