The pasuk in Devarim (6:7) states, “V’shinantam l’vonecha v’dibarta bam … -- and you shall teach them to your children and you shall speak of them.”
The Vilna Gaon once commented that this small paragraph of Krias Shema contains all of the Aseres HaDibros – Ten Commandments. For example, the first dibrah (commandment) of “Anochi, I am your G-d,” is represented by the words “Hashem Elokeinu Hashem Echad,”. We learn that the commandment of “Lo Sirtzach – one shall not kill,” is alluded to in this parsha with the word “v’shinantam – and you shall teach your children.”
How is this parallel drawn? The Sifri states that one who does not teach his son Torah it is as if he has murdered him. Whether or not the person intends to do so, or is aware of the repercussion of his inaction, the ultimate result is equivalent to murdering his child. One could compare this to the animal who loves her young and holds it closely and hugs it so tightly until the life is squeezed out of the baby animal.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
In honor of Elul I am going to post one of the foundations of Teshuva from the Ohrchos Tzaddikim everyday.
Charata- One must have regret and understand what they have done. Included in this foundation is also, removing any positive "feeling" the person might have had while committing a sin.
For example, if one ate non-kosher food, they shouldn't, "say I regret eating that food, but wow it was delicious!"uov
We learn from the Talmud in Shabbos, where our Chazal tell us, that any Mitzva that was accepted with Simcha, we still do it with Simcha. from this we learn that the amount of enthusiasm for Torah that a child will have in life, is dependant to a large extent on the way which Torah learning was presented to him as a child.(Successful Chinuch, wagschal)
I think this concept is very important and every teacher and parent should be aware that children need constant guidence and the only source should be from the Torah; especially in today's generation!
How can one make children ensure their children's spiritual safety?
Rabbi Dovid Goldwasser said that the world is continuing in its existance because of all the Torah learning that's going on. If the WHOLE WORLD stopped learning Torah for ONE MINUTE, in that split second the whole world would cease to exist. This is becase we are told in Bereishis that the world was created bishvil Reishis- Torah and Bnei Yisroel.
How overwhelming one might find teshuva to be. All the details, fear, regret etc, but we forget that Hash-m gave us this power to do Teshuva on ANYTHING as a gift!! Really we can be forgiven for anything and everything!
We learn in Sha'arei Teshuva that one must realize that even Tzaddikim fall sometimes. We learn that there is NO ONE in the world that lives without ever sinning!
The second foundation of Teshuva is Azivas HaCheit. Once a person forsakes the sin, he should not return to it, for his Teshuva is considered Batul. A person should forsake his wrongdoing and regret he ever did them.
Post a Comment