You shall teach them to your children (Devarim 6:7)

A few months ago after my daughter was born, I was on the phone with someone who I do business with. He mentioned that he just married off his daughter. I responded that I just had a baby daughter. He asked me if this was my first child? I said, “no, my fifth”. He thought I was nuts. Why do you want so many children?

Studies show that each child costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s for a regular American child. This does not include tuition for Jewish schools. It does not include the extra expenses of living a religious Jewish life. So, why do we want to have so many children?

Rabbi Dovid Orlofsky makes an interesting analogy. It is an extremely hot day outside. The best place to be is inside your air conditioned house with a lemon-ade in your hand. But if you look out your window, you will see a group of boys running on the blacktop playing basketball. Why? It is because to make life more meaningful, you can’t always take the easy way out.

The same is with children. The reason we have so many children and pay such a high tuition to educate them is because it makes our life more meaningful.

Even if you don’t have children, I think this lesson is for everyone. A person needs to think about his life and if he is always taking the easy way or if he challenges himself to grow and make life more meaningful.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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