If I’m a fool for anything, it’s the potential

AS

a naturally curious person, learning has always appealed to me. One of the factors that went into my decision to convert to Judaism was its depth: I’d never reach the end of learning. What I didn’t take into account was how insecure I’d feel about all the things I didn’t know.

When my oldest daughter was in second  or third  grade, I realized with dismay that I couldn’t help her with her limudei kodesh homework. All those mi amar el mis and al mi ne’emars? I didn’t stand a chance.

“I graduated from college with honors, but I can’t help my eight-year-old with her homework,” I confided to an FFB friend over steaming cups of coffee.

“I can’t help my daughter with her homework either,” she responded candidly. “I hated school, plus I was eight the last time I learned this. It’s not exactly fresh in my mind.”

It helped to know I wasn’t entirely alone, but the distance between the mind and the heart is, as they say, vast. I could know that the gaps in my knowledge weren’t a personal failing, but I still felt, at times, deeply deficient.