daf bit: Kiddushin 29

[cellio]

Some commandments are binding on men but not on women, among them the following obligations to his son: to circumcise him, to redeem him, to teach him torah, to find him a wife, and to teach him a craft. Some say: and to teach him to swim. Rabbi Yehudah said that a man who does not teach his son a craft teaches him brigandry. (29a)

Comments

[fauxklore]

I also recall something about how if your teacher and your father are drowning and you can only save one, you're supposed to save your teacher unless your father is a sage. And that to be a sage, your father has to have taught you one religious thing and one practical thing, with the religious thing being the Sh'ma and the practical thing how to swim.

[cellio]

I've heard the teacher-versus-father issue, but hadn't heard the definition of sage. That's classic rabbinic thinking, though, so it doesn't surprise me.