…they cried before him, “Avreich!” (Bereishis 41:43)

Rashi: …Rebbe Yehuda explained: אברך is appellation for Yoseph who was אב “a father” in wisdom and רך “tender” in years. Whereupon Rabbi Yossi the son of Dermaskis said to him: “How much longer will you pervert for us the meaning of Scripture? The word אברך can only be connected with the word ברכים knees (i.e. “Bend the knee”)…

Parents are often frustrated with their teenage children. The children are convinced that they understand it all and have better ideas than the older generation. The parents, who are on the other side of the fence, generally have experience and wisdom to differentiate between real quality ideas as opposed to passing ones (at least in regards to their children’s education). This idea is expressed in Chazal with an adage, “The demolition of elders is building and the building of youth is demolition” (Megillah 31b)

Just this week I met with parents who tried to express this thought by saying, “Children see only what is in front of them whereas the mature adult can see the far-reaching consequences of their actions.” I think the classic example of what they were referring to is when the nine-year-old boy is going after his 12-year-old brother because he is annoyed with him. The parent calmly says, “You know he is going to beat you up?” The nine-year-old says, “I know, but I don’t care, and I am going to give him what is coming to him.” At that point many parents are at a loss as to what to say!

Imagine you are living at the time of the Maccabees and the “short-sighted” Maccabees say they are going to fight a war against the Greeks, who were then the world’s superpower. Anyone above the age of four would sign them off as immature and impulsive. Yet we see not only were they right in concept, but Hashem actually made a miracle to bring about their success.

The story is told about a young prodigy from a small town. There was no one in the town who could teach him, for even though he was very young, he surpassed all those around him. His tutor sent him with a letter to an expert teacher in the big city using the words of Chazal “yonik v’chacham” – meaning a young, smart child. The second teacher tested to see how quick witted the child was, and he said, “Obviously the rebbe is trying to say that you are a ‘wise guy’ and not really smart. The proof of that is that he called you yonik v’chacham – you are young and smart, but if you were really smart beyond your years, he would have said it in other way around: smart yet young.  My proof to this is from Rashi in parshas Mikeitz. Yosef was called ‘avreich’ and Rashi says this was because he was “Av” in chachma and “Rach” in shanim (father in wisdom but tender in years). Therefore, if your rebbe truly felt you were a child prodigy, he would have first expressed your intellectual ability.” To this the child immediately responded, “It seems to be that there is a disagreement which way the word should be written. Rashi continues with a second approach. According to Rebbe Yossi, if Rebbe Yehuda was right, it should say “Rachav”, and therefore a new explanation must be found. This is a proof that the way it should be written is young in age and yet smart.”

Whichever way you look at it, it is clear that there are disadvantages with being young and impetuous. So how do we decide what is really the “smart” thing to do? There is an expression in Hebrew “al tihye tzodek, tihye chacham” – it is better to be smart than right. That is true when the purpose is to move on in life. However, as the Torah wants us to lead a certain kind of life, the right life, sometimes being right is more important than being smart. This is the reason why many times we hear things from the gedolim that appear to us not to make sense. There is a reason why the gedolei Yisrael are called “the zekanim”.

On Chanukah we celebrate this exact idea. If we would have been smart instead of right, we would not be here right now!