“You (plural) shall teach them to your (plural) children to discuss them, while you (singular) sit in your home, while you (singular) walk on the way, when you (singular) retire and when you (singular) arise.” (11:19) Why does the Torah change plural to singular in the middle of the verse?
R’ Yitzchak Menachem Weinberg (Tolner Rebbe in Yerushalayim) explains:
The Torah is teaching that successful parenting requires a person to work on himself. “You” alone! Do not rely on the merits of distinguished ancestors. Do not think that your behavior when you are alone, when no one sees you, doesn’t matter.
If a person serves Hashem even when he sits alone at home, when he walks alone on the way, when he retires to bed alone and when he arises alone, then he can teach his children. (Chamin B’Motzai Shabbat: Devarim p.82)
Reprinted from this week’s email of R’ Yedidye Hirtenfeld’s whY I Matter parsha sheet for the Young Israel of Midwood in Brooklyn.
