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I heard someone quote Rav Shlomo Wolbe from his sefer זריעה ובניין בחינוך saying, “We have blood on our hands for forcing children to daven so much way before bar or bas mitzvah..."

Does anyone know the hebrew text of what Rav Wolbe said in his sefer and what page number it's on?

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  • Not quite the same, but R' Yaakov Kaminetsky pointed to the Gemara about the "guest bed" in Sodom, where if you were too short they stretched you; too tall, they cut off your limbs; he said this was the state of our educational system. And R' Ephraim KiTov has an essay called "al chet shechatanu lefenecha bechinuch habanim" about shoving Gemara at kids who aren't ready for it. – Shalom Nov 27 '14 at 6:29
  • This question would be much more valuable if you would edit in as much information as you can about where you heard this quotation and why you're interested in discovering more about its provenance. – Isaac Moses♦ Nov 28 '14 at 2:35
  • His son in law Rav Erlanger would also say over from him to imagine a small child with no desire in the world except to eat a piece of candy. And you hand the child this wonderful treasure BUT the child may not eat it till they make a bracha. What do you think children will start to feel about Brachos? I have seen a very similar point in Rav Matisyahu Solomon's book, I think it was in Hearts full of fire. – user6591 Nov 28 '14 at 17:29
  • @user6591, correction, it's "Hearts Full of Love". – Chiddushei Torah Nov 29 '14 at 23:41
  • @Chiddushei that makes sense:) – user6591 Nov 29 '14 at 23:44
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Sure, in his book "זריעה ובניין בחינוך" he wrote that once or twice. I didn't find a digital edition of this book to quote from, but I remember it very well from learning this book last year...

EDIT: I would scan it if it was not copyrighted, but from page 44 to 46 Rav Shlomo Wolbe talks about it. Actually I didn't find your exact quote, but the idea is very similar. He says that bring your children to the synagogue too early is ruining their מורא מקדש and forcing the kid to pray destroy the connection that his soul has with prayer:

בתפילה צריכה להיות נשמה של יהודי, אם מכריחים את הילד להתפלל כהרגל חיצוני... ממאיסים עליו את התפילה. אחר כך כאשר הוא כבר בחור מבוגר - אין לו שום קשר נפשי עם התפילה, והאשמה רובצת על ראשם של ההורים שהכריחו אותו להתפלל בגיל מוקדם מדי.‏

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  • do you know what page number it's on and the text of what he said? – Chiddushei Torah Nov 28 '14 at 16:59
  • sure, I would scan it if it was not copyrighted, but from page 44 to 46 he talks about it. Actually I didn't find your exact quote, but the idea is very similar. He says that bring your children to the synagogue too early is ruining their מורא מקדש and forcing the kid to pray destroy his soul connection to the prayer: בתפילה צריכה להיות נשמה של יהודי, אם מכריחים את הילד להתפלל כהרגל חיצוני... ממאיסים עליו את התפילה. אחר כך כאשר הוא כבר בחור מבוגר - אין לו שום קשר נפשי עם התפילה, והאשמה רובצת על ראשם של ההורים שהכריחו אותו להתפלל בגיל מוקדם מדי." – Nissim Yarchi Nov 30 '14 at 22:45

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