Are you grown up? Out of school and out of the house?
Is your education complete?
Before you answer that last question, consider the profundity implied by the term 'education'.
It's not just the three 'R's and their academic partners. It’s so much more.
There is a deep objective to educating a child, and it's not simply a function of knowledge. 'Education' is about initiating a child into his/her own personality and talents, equipping them for a meaningful life in a complex world.
Chassidic thought points out that when you launch any new endeavor, you need to pay special attention to its initial stages; you need to ensure you give it a healthy send-off, before you can exhale and trust in its ability to follow a healthy pattern. You need to be wholly invested in those early, vulnerable chapters.
Similarly, in helping to launch a child's life, a parent/teacher needs to shower love and support, building a sense of security and empowerment. Within that healthy cocoon, a child can hit a healthy stride, growing to meaningfully engage the world.
That's the soul of education.
And it doesn't stop with childhood; the concept applies to any situation where the subject is too vulnerable to find his or her own way forward over a threshold.
That's one reason this Holiday is called Chanukah, which literally means 'Inauguration' or 'Education'.
When the Hellenists took control of Israel, and began to seduce the Jews with their hedonistic ways, the Jews were in a particularly weak position, both spiritually and militarily. Their lives went dark; they couldn’t extricate themselves from this threat to their very existence.
But, in the final analysis, we never go totally dark. There's always the spark of elemental connection to G-d that can never be extinguished. Digging deep for that backstop of moral strength, the Jews refused to surrender their religious practices. They wouldn't - they couldn't - separate themselves from their G-d and their heritage.
And G-d - like the quintessential loving Parent - responded. Seeing their childlike vulnerability, G-d showered them with loving care, with spiritual and military strength, with supernatural light in their lives, to make it over this difficult threshold.
That’s what we celebrate on Chanukah: The miracle of G-d’s care and love lighting up the darkness.
In those days.
Today.