1.
Once upon a time, at the very beginning of the coronavirus, after the first wave, or even the second, they used to ask what you would take with you from the coronavirus. That is, which restriction actually did you good? What forced change in your life made it better? What do you think is positive about the new reality that one day fell on you and the world?
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My immediate answer is parent-teacher conferences. The coronavirus solved the problem of parent-teacher conferences for me. No more in-person meetings with the teacher where you sit across from him on a greenish fourth-grade chair, with a board behind him with fragments of exercises that you never knew how to solve and will never know how to solve, and in a space filled with the scent of tangerine peels, which automatically throws you back to the less successful days of your life - but a remote Zoom call.
Not that I'm not afraid of the teacher on Zoom, but in the corona format at least I'm spared the threatening setting. And the smell.
My wife, by the way, is quite the opposite. She enjoys going to parent-teacher conferences so much that she even goes to talk to the last teacher. We finally leave the meeting with all the children's teachers, which requires a complex operation of planning schedules, because you arrive at the school and first of all write your name on the sheet on the door of all your children's classrooms.
Then you go into the first teacher who is available, and then quickly run through the school hallways to the second child's classroom, ignoring Bristols in the spirit of "the words of the wise are heard in peace," only to discover that things are going on lazily there, and when your turn finally comes, exactly such a perfect pair of parents arrive, who just happened to be there, but they say that right now, at 9:32 PM, it's their turn, because the announcement the students received clearly stated that at 9:32 PM, parents whose last names begin with the letter H and end with the letter L are invited.
I rush to ask their names, under the guise of concern for procedure and proper administration, but in reality I do it to make sure later that my son is not their son's friend. I fear the bad influence of children raised in perfect families.
In short, after we somehow managed to get in touch with all the children's teachers, and here we are, we can check off with relief another challenging parent-teacher meeting (challenging even if, thank God, we hear good things about the children. Simply because of this bit of past memories), my wife pulls out a note from some hidden compartment in her bag with the full list of teachers and says in a tone full of energy and activity: "Okay, so we've done the teachers, let's see what's left... Yes, there's the science teacher, the substitute grammar teacher, and the deputy principal.".
Well, you can understand her. For her, unlike me, school reminds me of a time of prosperity and success in life. Oh, where are those good old days of surprise tests, and of dictations with long English words that are written differently than they sound, like "lef" (laughs. I didn't write that word in English because I still don't know how to do it)!
So that's it, now this farce is over. You log in like a king to the link from your computer at home or even from your cell phone, sit on a high chair, not for a fourth grader, not for a Turkish ambassador, of course turn off the camera so that the teacher doesn't catch you not listening for a moment and putting you in a corner or sending you to the principal, and even this matter with the professional teachers is spared from me. For my part, my wife will also have an in-depth conversation on Zoom with the deputy of the deputy principal.
2.
And all this beginning was to explain why I listened with an open heart and free of past memories and complexes to one of my children's educators at the parent meeting held this week on Zoom. By the way, within the hierarchy of parent meetings, this is actually the least threatening, because it is a general conversation, for all the parents together, in which the teacher does not talk specifically about your child (he doesn't really know him yet), but actually gives a presentation like this about the new school year. What are they going to learn? What are his expectations of the students? What are his expectations of the parents?
Then, amidst the talk about the seventh grade curriculum for the 2012 school year, the teacher said a half-sentence, almost casually, that got me thinking.
He said that this year they are going to study the laws of Shabbat in the law class, but he hopes that the extra month we have this year will give the class time to go over the laws of Shevi'it as well. I didn't listen carefully until the end, maybe I'm wrong about the material, maybe he was talking about the laws of tithing. But that was the direction.
What does "the month that was added to us this year" mean? Who added it? The Ministry of Education? No. Our sages, may their memory be blessed. The year 5782 is a leap year. Which means that there is another Adar. That is, another full month for the coming year to be upon us for the better.
That's interesting. I never considered the extra month in a leap year as another month to prepare for or to take advantage of. For me, certainly as a student, the only relevant thing following the leap year was the fact that Purim was postponed by a month and with it the messes that could be made at school. Beyond that? Nothing.
But this is a mistaken and childish view. We received a month as a gift this year. A whole month. A day and another day, and another 28 days. That's a lot of time that can and should be used. Children in the seventh grade intend to study the laws of the seventh, or Me'ashot, and that's only for a few hours a month. What do I intend to do with a whole month?
The return to repentance of Elul begins with plans for Adar 2.
3.
I planned to dedicate the second part of this week's column to Guy Zohar, my Person of the Year in the category of "The Most Elegant Lie Revealer of 2011, the Year of the Big Lie.".
I estimate that he will win this title next year as well. With one difference: If Prime Minister Bennett, God forbid, continues in his position, Zohar will be forced to move from one program a day to several programs a day. There is so much material, so much fakery. He may have to break into the broadcast with special sections every hour.
But suddenly I remembered the breaking news: This week, on Wednesday, we finish studying Tractate Sukkah in Daf Yomi and start a new one, Tractate Bitza. So Bennett's lies will wait. They will always be there. But the opportunity to join Daf Yomi will not return.
More precisely: it will return. After all, any day you can open a gemara and start studying. But this week, on Thursday, you receive a special opportunity at a special time that will never come again: just before Rosh Hashanah to enter into a work plan that will ensure that 2012 will be a better year for you.
No, I'm not a baba who hands out promises and virtues. I'm more than a baba: I state facts. Whoever joins the global gold club of Daf Yomi students this week promises themselves a much more stable, much smarter, much more meaningful year. And if not – your money will be returned to you.
Who doesn't look for rights for the new year? Who doesn't look for a little change for the new year? The Daf Yomi will give you self-discipline, a defined daily task that will put your life in order. And that's of course without even starting to talk about the specifics of the mitzvah of Torah study and its spiritual impact.
And here begins this week a short treatise, 39 pages in total, that falls at a time that should not be missed. So go ahead, get started. You are capable. This is written by a person who, as mentioned, has a trauma from school, who doesn't know how to solve fourth-grade exercises, who is afraid of teachers, teachers, and Bristols, but enough, it's impossible for everyone in your life to say about you at parent-teacher conferences, "He's a nice kid overall, but he's not realizing his full potential.".
It's time to start trying to realize your full potential.
• The column is published in the newspaper 'Bisheva''
