Shalom and thank you for your question! It sounds like a very good initiative to take! It seems that in every generation and in every area there are unfortunately orphans, and/or families that fall apart for various reasons, or other sorts of tragedies. If this idea has been on your mind for a long time, it shows that you are a caring person, and this is the number one requirement for such an undertaking.
There is a saying from the holy Baal Shem Tov that a Jewish soul descends to this world for say, 70 or 80 years – in order to do a favor for a fellow Jew. This initiative could be a very crucial favor!
It is also of course, a tremendous responsibility, as is any educational project, as you must be aware, since you are seeking guidance. The holiday of 15th of Shvat, the New Year for the trees, emphasizes the importance of education, by providing an analogy. When you plant a tree, the initial sprout is small and pliable. At this stage, it can be ‘trained’ to grow a certain way, and a scratch on the small plant extends to a big mark as the tree grows. Thus we see how important education is, especially when a child is young and tender, and needs boundless love, along with loving boundaries. Another example in our sources, is from Ethics of the Fathers, (Pirkei Avot,) where it states that teaching a child is liking writing on a clean new piece of paper, as opposed to teaching an older person, which is like writing on a piece of paper which has been written on and erased many times. In other words, like our phones these days, with older people, memory storage gets filled up, while children have not yet experienced so much that their brain is ‘littered’. Why is this important to know?
For several reasons. We need to know that the younger the child, the greater the impact we can have on his life, and that the information the young child absorbs is indelibly ingrained in him, so that even though he might forget on a conscious level what he learned in kindergarten or grade school, it has affected and molded his life. This is a privilege and a responsibility, and someone like you who is motivated and seeking to achieve this in the framework of Torah will surely succeed, with G-d’s help!
Regarding Halachot, the truth is, in a situation such as a home for children who are not all biologically related to each other, there can be some complicated Halachic questions, and in general, all educational institutions really need a Rabbi who can be a Halachic mentor, how much more so in a dormitory setting.
Let’s say all the children you take in are one gender, either boys or girls, but then you will likely have mixed gender staff, because of the various subjects and extra- curricular activities, domestic provisions and maintenance… So there could arise questions about yichud (the Halachic prohibitions of males and females above certain ages being together in a closed room,) modesty, if females are engaged in swimming or sports for example, or how the sleeping quarters are separated…
Then of course, kashrut requires constant supervision, and if someone on the premises has special dietary needs there could be specific questions related to that.
Most likely, many more Halachic questions would arise, which is why, as above, we recommend having a regular connection with a Rabbi well versed in all the above topics, who would be available to provide guidance as needed.
If you want more information, please send us your details, and we will try to refer you to someone who could help out.
Wishing you much success!
