In recent months, we have witnessed a profound moral confusion take root in some of the most prestigious universities in the Western world. At Harvard, Columbia, and other colleges, students and faculty have stood defiantly in support of those who seek Israel’s destruction. Some even defend the terrorism of Hamas, unable—or perhaps unwilling—to distinguish between the evil of mass murder and the tragic necessities of self-defense.
How has this moral fog descended upon the citadels of Western learning? To answer this question, we should look not at geopolitics but at education. And to understand education, we must turn to this week’s parsha.
Parshat Beha’alotecha opens with a seemingly minor command: Aharon the High Priest is told not simply to light the Menorah, but to cause the flames to rise. It is a peculiar phrase—why not just say “light it”? Rashi explains that the flame must be nurtured until it burns on its own.
This is a metaphor for all education, and especially moral education. The role of a teacher—or a parent—is not merely to ignite knowledge, but to help a child to become their own source of light. To ensure that the moral flame, once kindled, will continue to burn independently.
For centuries, Jewish children have grown up within a culture of moral literacy. From the earliest age, they absorb values not as slogans but as stories. A phrase from the weekly parsha, a Midrash at the Shabbat table, a rabbi’s sermon, a question asked on the walk home from shul. Piece by piece, a moral world takes shape in our children’s minds.
This is Judaism’s unique gift: the slow accumulation of wisdom through repeated encounters with Torah. Not through theoretical lectures, but through real life examples.
If you remove the Torah, this scaffolding collapses. Brought up in a secular world where truth is relative, where good and evil are “narratives,” and where authority is suspect, students arrive at university morally unprepared. In the absence of firm cultural foundations, they are blown about by every ideological wind.
The tragedy is not that today’s student protesters are bad. It is that they were never taught to distinguish between good and evil.
And so, the lesson we can learn from the lighting of the Menorah is this: The light must begin in the Sanctuary, but it is meant to reach the world. The Kohen prepares the flame, but anyone—even a non-Kohen—may light it, given the tools. The Torah entrusts every Jew with that responsibility.
Judaism believes not in moral elites but in moral education. Not in imposing truth, but in shaping souls. The Menorah teaches us that if we build the structure—if we prepare the wick—the flame will rise on its own.
In the face of today’s moral darkness, our task is not to curse the night but to spread the light. We must teach our children, and the rest of the world, to rediscover morality, by lighting one spark at a time.
Rabbi Leo Dee is an educator living in Efrat. His book “Transforming the World: The Jewish Impact on Modernity” was republished in English and Hebrew in memory of his wife Lucy and daughters Maia and Rina, who were murdered by terrorists in April 2023.
