Sometimes the Talmud goes on and on with a list of not-so-exciting rules and then out of nowhere comes an amazing little anecdote or story that changes everything.
That happened in today's daf and I promise this story is a true gem.
The discussion in Sukkah 48b focuses on the rituals surrounding the water libation offered during Sukkot during the time of the Temple. We learn that the priests were supposed to pour water into one of two spouts (the other was for wine) on the altar as an offering to God. We learn a ton of details about how the offering took place and eventually get to the following anecdote:
"To the priest who performed the libation they use to say, "Raise your hand" for on a certain occasion, a certain man (a Saducee) poured out the water over his feet and all the people pelted him with their etrogs."
Later we learn that on that day the horn on the altar became damaged and rendered invalid because of "some hard missiles that caught it." In other words, the people missed the man and damaged the altar with their etrogs.
Oops!
This story is a perfect anecdote for those of us on the cusp of figuring out how to effectively discipline a testy two year old who just became a big sister. Just yesterday, not unlike the Saducee in our story, Ariella was painting beautifully at the table when, out of nowhere, she looked me directly in the eye and poured the cup of water on the floor.
Why did she do it? Who knows. Why did the Saducee do it? Who knows and who cares. It is not the point of the story. If it was, the rabbis would have had something to say about it. The point of the story is how ineffectively and inappropriately the people responded and how that response served as an impetus for change.
Pelting the man with etrogs was clearly the wrong choice. This attempt at discipline backfired and the people ended up punishing themselves by destroying their own ability to offer sacrifices to God. If this story doesn't teach us the power of our reactions, I'm not sure what will.
As a parent of a testy two year old, this lesson can not be repeated enough. I'm fairly certain that I will never throw an etrog at my children but I can't say with the same certainty that I will always react in the most effective way. Hopefully, with the help of a few good parenting books and the experience of disciplining Ariella through this stage, Asher will stand a chance at being the recipient of effective discipline!
So, how does the story end and what does it teach us? The rabbis suggest that because of this ineffective attempt at discipline, a new rule was instated for ALL priests before they offered their libations. Now, because of this one incident, all priests have to raise their hands before making the offering.* This act was not intended as a punishment, but rather as an attempt to prevent a similar incident from reoccurring.
We hold the same methodology today. In the world of education, we try to cultivate a safe and structured learning environment so as to avoid the vast majority of disciplinary situations before they occur. This doesn't mean that you never have to discipline in a classroom. It just means that many incidents can be avoided before they occur. Our challenge is to do our best to prevent what we can, and do our best to respond appropriately when we can't. The hope is that we, like the rabbis, will learn from our mistakes and institute new rules as we go that work for all parties involved.
*I'm actually not sure how this serves as an effective preventative measure, but apparently it did.
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