"The "big holiday" has arrived.
It seems that it is enough to remember these two words at any stage in life, and the feeling improves dramatically.
It doesn't matter if you're a five-year-old child who imagines roller coasters and grassy fields, or if you're an elderly grandfather with grandchildren who longingly remembers "Between Times, Father." Either way, this period of "July-August" is burned into the Israeli consciousness as days of freedom and release.
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And here we are.
On the secular street, young people have already found casual work to fill their empty days and spend them pleasantly, and everywhere children have already signed up for follow-up camps, and some are more strict and stricter about signing up for 'afternoon camp' - which is to say: a two-day meeting between parent and child, at wake-up time and at bedtime. Why not?.
The summer holidays, like any season without a lifeguard, are fraught with countless dangers at all hours of the day. Those wonderful moments when a child or teenager is free and liberated for themselves, with only emotion and adrenaline at their side, have great power to bring destruction and even bereavement, Rahal.
The dangers are clear and there is no room here to go into detail.
In the last month alone, the Haredi public buried five of its sons who left this world by drowning. Fear of fears. The days between the approaching Egyptians certainly do not add any security from the terrifying dangers, and the public must keep its eyes open and be careful and vigilant, and a little more than on any standard day.
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But it turns out that there are much greater dangers.
Parents, no matter how smart they are and how intelligent they imagine themselves to be, cannot always live up to the civilization and tremendous technological advancement that the world experiences every two minutes. Even an 'up-to-date' and 'young at heart' parent cannot know what has developed the second he or she turns a blind eye to gadgets for a moment and goes about his or her own business.
And the development is terrible – both rapid and dangerous.
Take as an example the Wi-Fi network, which is also already defined as an old development and a kind of 'antique'. Do parents know what its impact is? Does every parent know the enormous danger of owning a standard Samsung device (without a SIM card, even without one!) that costs anywhere from 100 to 200 shekels? Do the parents, who are responsible for the spiritual health of the boy growing up in their home, know how great the power of this small device as a soul killer is?
Just this week, I sat with a pair of pious and wholesome parents who came out of concern for the sake of God for advice and guidance in the education of their teenage son, a pure yeshiva student of about 18 years old. Their mouths were filled with service and praise for the righteous and persistent boy who never stops doing good, but recently he had become a little 'tired' from his extensive studies, and they wondered whether it was a mitzvah that commanded them to 'give him a break' and ease the great academic pressure on his shoulders.
I, who had a little understanding of what was happening to their flower, went around asking them gentle questions about the child's behavior. The answers were honest, straightforward, and amazing.
It turns out that in honor of his success in one of the tests, the righteous man received a gift from his parents: a small, standard GPS navigation device that his father had been in possession of and now no longer needed. "He loves this nonsense, so I gave it to him," said the merciful father.
I asked to see the device in question, and once it was shown to me, the whole mystery was solved.
It turns out that the damned 'Wi-Fi' connection was what interested the righteous Yeshibsha'er, a little more than "that nonsense" about GPS. And when he was given a gift in the form of a small Android-enabled Samsung that his father truly and sincerely used for navigation purposes, the boy surfed back and forth under the protection of a nice and kind neighbor who left his wireless network open to all. Rahman ben Rahman.
Did the father know what explosives he had in his possession and which were transferred to his son? Absolutely not.
Did the father know what using such a device does to the psyche of a teenage boy? No, not at all.
And how would he know? Isn't he righteous and God-fearing?.
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And that's exactly the point. Parents are not required, God forbid, to stoop to the lowly level of global technological advancement, just as they are not required to understand how long the hiking trail in the Banias Nature Reserve is. But they are certainly required and even obligated to know and recognize the enormous danger of the technological world.
True, it is almost impossible to stand and be present 'online' at all stages of an adolescent's coping, but it is absolutely necessary to be present in the child's inner soul, with care, concern, and lots of love.
When the boy knows and understands that his father and mother care for him and show genuine concern for his spiritual world, when the son feels his father's caressing hand and his mother's warm words covering his face, he himself will seek to stay close, as close as possible.
The demand from parents is first and foremost to keep their eyes open and notice any changes, God forbid. And of course, never stop praying with tears and lots of supplications.
Have a nice vacation.
