Rambam: On Teaching Young Children about Hashem

This blog post was originally published in June, 2007. Click here for a printer-friendly version of this blog post.

Photo: very early color photograph taken by Sergey Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii
of a Jewish teacher and his students in Samarkand, circa 1909-1915

Rambam: On Teaching Young Children about Hashem

In this post we will present the Rambam's answers to two questions about early childhood chinuch (education) on the mitzvah of Yichud Hashem (God's Oneness). The two questions are:

1. Which ideas about Hashem should be taught to young children, and which should not - or cannot - be taught until they reach the requisite level of intellectual maturity?
2. How should these ideas be taught?

The Rambam answers the first question in the Guide for the Perplexed 1:35:

In the same way as all people must be informed, and even children must be trained in the belief that God is One, and that none besides Him is to be worshiped, so must all be taught by simple authority that God is incorporeal; that there is no similarity in any way whatsoever between Him and His creatures: that His existence is not like the existence of His creatures, His life not like that of any living being, His wisdom not like the wisdom of the wisest of men; and that the difference between Him and His creatures is not merely quantitative, but absolute, as between two individuals of two different classes .... This suffices for the guidance of children and of ordinary persons who must believe that there is a perfect Being, who is neither a body nor a force in a body, and that He is the Deity, that no sort of deficiency and therefore no affection whatever can attain Him ...

That God is incorporeal, that He cannot be compared with His creatures, that He is not subject to external influence; these are things which must be explained to every one according to his capacity, and they must be taught by way of tradition to children and women, to the stupid and ignorant, as they are taught that God is One, that He is eternal, and that He alone is to be worshiped. Without incorporeality there is no unity, for a corporeal thing is in the first case not simple, but composed of matter and form which are two separate things by definition, and secondly, as it has extension it is also divisible ... 

Those who are not sufficiently intelligent to comprehend the true interpretation of these passages in the Bible, or to understand that the same term admits of two different interpretations, may simply be told that the Scriptural passage is clearly understood by the wise, but that they should content themselves with knowing that God is incorporeal, that He is never subject to external influence, as passivity implies a change, while God is entirely free from all change, that He cannot be compared to anything besides Himself, that no definition includes Him together with any other being, that the words of the Prophets are true, and that difficulties met with may be explained on this principle. This may suffice for that class of persons, and it is not proper to leave them in the belief that God is corporeal, or that He has any of the properties of material objects, just as there is no need to leave them in the belief that God does not exist, that there are more Gods than one, or that any other being may be worshiped.

According to the Rambam, we are obligated to teach children these fundamental ideas about Hashem as soon as they are capable of understanding them. Even before they reach that level of intellectual maturity, we must teach them these ideas by rote. Just as we teach a child is trained to believe that God is One and that only He is to be worshiped, he must also be trained to believe that God is incorporeal, has no emotions, doesn't exist in any place, cannot change, and bears absolutely no resemblance to any of His creations. And if the child asks questions about passages in the Chumash, the answers to which he is incapable of understanding, we must assure him that the verses are not to be taken literally, and that there are chachamim (wise individuals) who understand their true meaning.

I find this answer to be very interesting. I think it's fair to say that it is a common practice in Jewish households to introduce children to the basic notion of monotheism at a very early age: the basic idea that God is One, and is the only One we worship. It would be rare to find a Jewish child who is aware that we worship Hashem, but thinks that Hashem refers to a multiplicity of gods, or that we worship gods other than Hashem. Either way the child doesn't fully grasp what we mean by the term "Hashem," but he or she has been taught by rote that this is what Jews believe. The Rambam maintains that we should extend this rote form of monotheism to include the other yesodei ha'Torah (fundamentals of Torah) which comprise Judaism's unique concept of Yichud Hashem. Even though many of these ideas are far too abstract for children to understand, we nevertheless instill the statements which correspond to these ideas in Jewish children from a very young age. 

The Rambam's answer to the second question - the question of how to teach these ideas to young children - can be found in the halachos of Mitzvas Sipur Yetzias Mitzrayim (the mitzvah to tell of the Exodus from Egypt on the night of Passover). The Rambam writes in Hilchos Chametz u'Matzah 7:2

It is a mitzvah to teach the children about the Exodus from Egypt even if they do not ask, as it is stated, “And you shall tell your son” (Exodus 13:8). The father should teach in accordance with the mind of the son. How? If the son is very young or stupid, he should say to him, “My son, all of us were slaves – like this maidservant or like this manservant – in Egypt, and on this night, the Holy One, Blessed is He, redeemed us and we went out to freedom.” And if the son is mature and intelligent, he should tell him what happened to us in Egypt, and the miracles that were wrought for us through Moshe Rabbeinu – in accordance with the mind of the son. 

The key principle is: lefi daato shel ben, aviv melamdo - the father should teach in accordance with the mind of his child. It would be meaningless to tell a child, "Pantheism is heresy. In truth, Hashem is incorporeal, and therefore cannot partake of accidental qualities such as location." But if a child asks, "Where is Hashem?" the parent might say something to the effect of: "Well, do you know where time is? Time isn't in any place, but it is real. Do you know where right and wrong are? Right and wrong aren't in any place, but they are both real. Hashem is also real, even though He isn't in any place." Of course, this is just an example. It may be that even this explanation is too abstract for the child. In each situation, the teacher or parent must strive to present the idea in accordance with the mind of the child.

Notice that the injunction to teach according to the mind of the child does not only refer to the formulation of the ideas, but to the media through which the ideas are presented. An older child may be able to learn through discussion, but a younger child may need to be taught with visual aids, rhyming songs, cartoons, and the like. I know parents who taught their kids fundamental ideas in metaphysics through puppet shows.

Needless to say, this post was not intended to be a comprehensive guide to early Torah education. But discussing the principles of education like these will better prepare us for the arduous but vital task of educating Jewish children.