The Gemara (Pesachim 96: and Yevamos 79:) relates that Reb Yehoshua said, "I heard [the following halachah], but I don't know what it means." Reb Chaim Kanievsky zt'l (Derech Sichah Vayeilach) says that perhaps Reb Yehoshua heard this halachah as a young child when his mother brought him to the beis medresh.
To boiling water, which cleanses and purifies the utensils from their impure, non-kosher status. Learning Torah, however, is a greater purifier because Torah is compared to fire. As it states (Yirmiyahu 23:19), כאש דברי כה הלא, “Behold My words are like fire.” Just as fire is a more potent form of cleansing and kashering, so too is learning Torah a preferred way to attain purity from aveiros.
It states (Bamibar 21:28), סיחון מקרית להבה “a flame from the city of Sichon." Targum Yonason translates סיחון as שיחון, speech, and it refers to speaking divrei Torah. The pasuk says that a blazing flame comes forth from Torah study, purifying us.
The passuk says (Bamidbar 19:19) על הטהר והזה וטהר ...השביעי וביום השלישי ביום הטמא, "The pure person shall sprinkle upon the tamei person on the third day and the seventh day...and he will become tahor..."
Tzaddikim said that the third and seventh days represent Torah. The third day represents Torah, as the Gemara (Shabbos 88.) says, “Baruch Hashem Who gave us a Torah of three (Torah, Neviim, Kesuvim) to a nation of three (kohanim, Leviim, Yisraelim) by the third (Moshe Rabbeinu, who was the third child to his parents) on the third day (of shloshes yemei hagbalah), in the third month (Sivan).”
The seventh day also represents Torah, as Chazal say, “All opinions agree that the Torah was given on Shabbos.” The ashes of the parah adumah were sprinkled onto the person who was tamei on the third and seventh day, teaching us that Torah study purifies.
The word טמא, when the three letters are spelled out in full like this: אלף מם טית is gematriya 610. תורה is one more because תורה is gematriya 611. This is hinted in the yotzros of Shabbos Parah, אחד הלא מטמא טהור יתן מי, that purity comes from the one more, which is Torah.
Studying Gemara Purifies
Rebbe Shlomo Karliner zy”a said that Gemara comes from the word gumri [coals] because Gemara is like burning coals that burn away all impurities.
Rebbe Shmuel Kaminka zy”a once spoke with his students about the importance of studying a “blatt Gemara.” He said, “With a blatt Gemara, one comes out of the blotta (the mud, the yetzer hara).”
One of the students became inspired and quickly went into the next room to find a Gemara. He couldn’t find a Gemara, but he found a Mishnayos. So he studied a chapter of Mishnayos and then returned to hear more Torah from Reb Shmuel Kaminka. As he returned, Rebbe Shmuel commented, "He thinks he can cleanse himself with a chapter of Mishnayos with the same purity that comes from a daf Gemara..."
Chinuch for Torah
Pirkei Avos (2:8) says, אשרי חנניה בן יהושע 'ר יולדתו, "Reb Yehoshua ben Chananyah, fortunate is his mother!" The Ra'v Bartenura explains, "Some explain that when his mother was pregnant, she went to the batei midrashim of her city and asked the Torah scholars to daven for the child in her womb to become a talmid chacham. And from the day her son, Reb Yehoshua, was born, she didn't take his crib out of the beis medresh, so his ears would hear nothing other than divrei Torah.
Reb Noson Gestetner zt'l writes (עמרם בן vol.1 310) that when his mother was in labor with him, his father, Reb Amram zt'l, requested from the midwife that she shouldn't speak during the first few minutes after the child is born because he wanted the first sounds the child hears to be the sound of Torah study. When the child was born, Reb Amram was in the next room studying Gemara out loud. These were the first sounds Reb Noson Gestetner heard as an infant.
Shulchan Aruch (Yorah Deiah 245:5) states, "When does one begin teaching Torah to his son? When the child begins to speak, teach him to say יעקב קהילת מורשה משה לנו צוה תורה, and the first pasuk of Shema. Continue teaching him gradually until he reaches six or seven years old, and then bring him to a melamed." Because we want the child's first words that he hears and speaks to be words of Torah.
Reb Yitzchak Hutner zt'l attributed his growth in Torah to his mother, who showed him her love for Torah. Once, her husband bought her a new dress. They were poor, so the dress meant a lot to her, but she saved it to put on for the first time her son made a siyum. This showed her son how much she loves Torah, encouraging him to put all his efforts into knowing Torah.
