<HTML>Dear Sasson and Lookjed readers,
I believe that I heard this anecdote first hand from someone who asked Rav
Aharon Soloveichik the following question: What text would Rav Soloveichik
recommend from which to teach "the facts of life" to his children?
Rav Soloveichik looked over the materials that the parent had brought,
recommended one particular text, and explained why he preferred it to the
others. Then Rav Soloveichik mentioned that in his own youth, they didn=92t
learn about these things from prepared texts, rather the boys would always
be certain to study those parts of the Gemara that their Rebbe skipped!=20
I guess that one way of dealing with them is to skip them, in the hope
that the students will pay special attention to those sections of the
text. On the other hand, given the sophistication of our students today
(who are exposed to a lot worse that the stories in Humash just by
watching commercials on television), perhaps these stories present an
opportunity to discuss "adult topics" not as something "dirty", but rather
as something that is part of life, and, in proper context, is, in fact,
holy.
Yitz</HTML>
