For the source text click/tap here: Ketubot 50
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Our daf opens a conversation on parenting.
Should one treat his young sons gently even if they do not wish to study Torah?
The rabbis share different opinions. Should one treat his young sons gently even if they do not wish to study Torah?
The rabbis share different opinions.
R. Yitzhak relates that in Usha a rabbinic ordinance was established that a parent should be lenient with his son regarding his studies until he is 12 years old, at which point he should force him to attend school.
This stands in contrast with the statement that Rav made to Rav Shmuel bar Sheilat (who was a prominent elementary school teacher at that time) that he should not accept students younger than six, but he should begin teaching children from age six onward and “stuff them like an ox.”
One resolution that the Gemara offers is the statement of Abaye, who quotes his foster mother as teaching that a child should begin the study of Torah at age six and of Mishna when he is ten.
We explore the childrearing practices and rabbinic views on pedagogy including Rav Lichtenstein’s approach, ending with a cultural literary analysis by Charlotte Fonrobert.