Teach Your Children...How To Swim

Got a call out of the blue from Morty (loyal blog reader) in NYC the other day. He's a driving force behind the Manhattan Island Foundation which sponors a 28.5 mile marathon swim each year and a great entrepreneur.

At some point, our conversation turned to religion and Morty in his sarcastic, self-effacing (sort-of), and humorous style lamented (only a bit) that he wasn't a "better Jew." [whatever that means].

I told him that, in fact, he's probably a more observant Jew than he realizes. You see, the MIF has helped over 40,000 kids learn how to swim since 1993 and he's just following the Talmud's guidance (but maxing it out.)

You see, in Talmud: Kiddushin 29a, it says:

"Our Rabbis taught:
A father has the following obligations towards his son- to circumcise him, to redeem him, if he is a firstborn, to teach him Torah, to find him a wife, and to teach him a craft or a trade. And there are some who say that he must also teach him how to swim."

He's just maxing the last one out (to cover the bases in case the others don't work out :-)).

Seriously, a great organization. Check out the website.