Marriage is love.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

For Oddjob...from Holly

Proverbs 22:15 JPS 1917:

15 Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Proverbs 23:14 JPS 1917:

13 Withhold not correction from the child; for though thou beat him with the rod, he will not die.
14 Thou beatest him with the rod, and wilt deliver his soul from the nether-world.

Commentary on Mishlei by Kravitz & Olitzky, 2002:

22:15: Physical chastisement was considered a necessary part of the education of a child.

23:13: This statement emphasizes the differences in the views of child-rearing between the ancient world and the contemporary period. Similarly, those in the medieval period and many in the modern world considered hitting children as a divine mandate and "spare the rod and spoil the child" as divine wisdom. Beating children teaches them that adults can do to them what they cannot do to adults. Hence, children who are physically abused will often do to their own children what was done to them - unless there is an intervention of some sort. The Greek term "pedagogue," like the Hebrew word "m'lameid," originally meant the teacher who motivated students with beatings. Even Gersonides, the philosopher, accepted the notion that beating children was useful. He thought that hitting the student would save the student from a premature death and preserve the student's soul, which can achieve eternity.


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