This week’s parshah includes the Torah’s command: “Tzedek tzedek tirdof— pursue justice, justice.” The repetition of the word tzedek is confusing at first glance. Is there more than one type of justice? If there are two types, how can one pursue both with a single “pursuit”?
The Yesod Ha’avodah provides an intriguing explanation. He explains that the first type of tzedek involves an intellectual absorption of what justice is. The second type is taking that intellectual understanding and appreciation of tzedek and putting it into action — moving it from thought to deed.
Understanding tzedek can be easier for some people than for others. However, internalizing and behaving according to the principles one holds is certainly a far greater challenge for everyone.
The significance of the singular pursuit after both of these, teaches us that we must initially set out to achieve both tzedeks at once. A path that leads only to an intellectual grasp of tzedek without encouraging us to put it into practice is not the path we should choose.
This concept can be applied to chinuch, where, all too often, we are very aware of the first type of chinuch message, the one that tells children what to do and from what to refrain — but when it comes to the second type of chinuch, the part that involves putting principles into action, we leave it to the child’s own free will. But “informative” chinuch alone, education that doesn’t inspire a child to actualize the messages being transmitted, is not chinuch.
Certainly the results of our efforts are not in our hands, but that does not mean that we may overlook the likely outcome of how we bring our children up. Chinuch that leads to inspiration and long-term implementation is not achieved via force but by example and by inspiring our children to genuinely appreciate Torah and mitzvos and to choose to live their lives accordingly. Whenever we give over a chinuch message, we must ensure that it is delivered in a way that a child will accept it willingly, not just because he must. The word “chinuch” is derived from the term chanukah, as in “chanukas habayis,” which suggests that it’s about completion, about having the intention to guide our children to become ehrliche Yidden, not merely telling them what to do.
