“For I have known him so that he will command his children and his household after him and they will keep G-d’s way doing charity and justice. G-d will then bring about for Avraham everything He promised.” (Bereishis 18:19)
A rav came to Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein with the following story: “A Jew who spends the whole day working for a living comes to my evening shiur and as soon as the shiur begins he falls asleep over his Gemara. He wakes up only once the shiur has ended.”
The rav approached the man and suggested he attend a morning shiur but he refused. “It’s true that I fall asleep at night and I may be more awake in the morning. But at night my children see me tired and worn out from work and they see that I am still making the effort to go to a shiur. This teaches them to have mesirus nefesh for the Torah. In the morning at the vasikin shiur my children won’t see me going to learn so how will they learn to love the Torah?”
Rav Zilberstein suggested that the man attend both the morning shiur for his own sake and the shiur at night for his children. (Tuvcha Yabiu)
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