The Power of Children Learning Torah
We have explained many times that one of the tasks placed upon a Jew is to refine the sparks of holiness.
Sparks of holiness are hidden within every created thing. When that thing becomes a vessel for G-dliness, the spark within it is purified and elevated.
In a broader sense, sparks are also hidden among the nations of the world, and these too must be refined. Once the spark within a nation has been extracted and elevated, that nation loses its force and eventually disappears from history.
This is why many nations that oppressed the Jewish people throughout the generations — Egypt, Babylonia, Media, and others — ultimately fell from their greatness. The spark had departed from them.
There is one nation, however, that differs from all the others: the nation descended from Eisav. Within it are many sparks of holiness, and by their power it will endure until the coming of Moshiach.
For this reason, the struggle between Israel and Eisav is so difficult. We must learn how to endure it in peace until we reach the prophetic destiny: “There will be no survivor from the house of Eisav” (Ovadiah 1:18).9
The Midrash cited above reveals the way this can be achieved:
“Go around to their synagogues and study halls. If you find children there chirping with their voices in Torah, you cannot overcome them. For this is what their father promised them when he said, ‘The voice is the voice of Yaakov’ — when the voice of Yaakov is found in the synagogues, the hands of Eisav do not prevail. But if not, then ‘the hands are the hands of Eisav,’ and you can overcome them.”
My father, Rabbi Yoram Abergel, of blessed memory, explains this in Imrei Noam — Moadim (Bein HaMetzarim, maamar 2).
In Megillat Eichah it says, “In His burning anger He cut down every horn of Israel” (Eichah 2:3). The Midrash (Eichah Rabbah 2:6) explains that throughout Tanach we find ten “horns” that represent the honor and glory of the Jewish people.
These are the horn of Avraham, the horn of Yitzchak, the horn of Yosef, the horn of Moshe, the horn of Torah, the horn of kehunah, the horn of Levi, the horn of prophecy, the horn of the Beit HaMikdash, and the horn of Israel, and some say that the final horn refers to the horn of Moshiach, as the verse says, “He gives strength to His king and raises the horn of His anointed” (I Shmuel 2:10).
The Midrash teaches that before the Jewish people sinned, when the Beit HaMikdash stood in its glory, all ten horns rested upon the heads of Israel. But once they sinned, the horns were taken from them. This is the meaning of the verse, “In His burning anger He cut down every horn of Israel.”
Once these horns were taken from the Jewish people, they were given to the nations. This is reflected in Daniel’s vision in chapter 7, where he saw four great beasts. The fourth beast was the most unusual, powerful, and terrifying of them all, and it had ten horns.
The angel later explained to Daniel that these ten horns allude to ten kings who will arise from among the nations at the end of the exile. In the end, they will fall, and the kingdom will return to Israel. These are the same ten horns that were taken from Israel and given to the nations.
However, the horns were not taken from Israel all at once. It happened gradually. Each time the Jewish people continued to sin, another horn was taken from them and given to the nations.
This is also explained in the Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 31a), which teaches that the Shechinah did not depart from Israel all at once, but in ten stages. It moved from above the kaporet to one of the keruvim, and from there continued to withdraw stage by stage: to the threshold of the Beit HaMikdash, the courtyard of the Azarah, between the Ulam and the altar, the outer altar, the roof of the Sanctuary, the wall of the Azarah, the city of Jerusalem, the Mount of Olives, and finally the wilderness. Only after all this did the Shechinah ascend to Heaven.
The Holy One, blessed be He, withdrew His Shechinah only gradually and with great difficulty, because at every stage He was waiting, as it were, for Israel to awaken and return in teshuvah. Had they done so, He would have restored His Shechinah upon them. But the Jewish people continued to sin.
Each time they sinned further and the Shechinah withdrew another step, another horn was taken from Israel. Finally, after all ten stages of departure, all ten horns were removed, and the Jewish people lost their splendor and glory.
The Midrash concludes that when the Jewish people do complete teshuvah, the Holy One, blessed be He, will restore those horns to their original place, upon the heads of the holy Jewish people. As the verse states, “All the horns of the wicked I will cut down; the horns of the righteous will be raised” (Tehillim 75:11). When will He restore them? When He raises the horn of His Moshiach, as it says, “He gives strength to His king and raises the horn of His anointed.”
The primary way the horn of the Jewish people is raised is through the increase of holy and pure tinokot shel beit rabban — young children studying the holy Torah.
This too is alluded to in the Midrash’s statement that Hashem will return the ten horns to Israel when He raises the horn of His Moshiach. Tinokot shel beit rabban are called “My anointed ones,” as the verse states, “Do not touch My anointed ones” (Tehillim 105:15), and Chazal expound: “These are tinokot shel beit rabban” (Shabbat 119b).
It follows that when the number of tinokot shel beit rabban increases among the Jewish people, the horn of Moshiach is raised as well. And when the horn of Moshiach is raised, all the horns that have belonged to Israel from time immemorial will return to them.
Chazal teach (Shabbat 119b): “The world exists only in the merit of the breath of tinokot shel beit rabban.” Their breath is clean and pure of sin; therefore, their Torah rises to the Throne of Glory without obstruction, arouses mercy upon the Jewish people, and sustains the entire world.
Because of the holiness of their Torah, Chazal ruled that their learning is not interrupted even for the building of the Beit HaMikdash.
Therefore, any city or settlement that has a Talmud Torah where tinokot shel beit rabban study Torah possesses tremendous protection. Their learning removes harsh decrees from the residents of that place, prevents calamities, Heaven spare us, and protects them with a powerful shield.
An allusion to this is found in the verse, “A soft tongue breaks the bone” (Mishlei 25:15). The words tishbor garem — “breaks the bone” — form an acronym for tinokot shel beit rabban gezeirot ra’ot mevatlim: tinokot shel beit rabban annul harsh decrees. The soft and pure tongue of children speaking words of Torah removes harsh decrees from the Jewish people and draws upon them grace, kindness, and great mercy.10
By contrast, a city without a Talmud Torah where tinokot shel beit rabban study Torah lacks protection and is exposed to danger, Heaven forbid. As Chazal say (Shabbat 119b): “Any city that does not have tinokot shel beit rabban is destroyed.” They add further: “Yerushalayim was destroyed only because they interrupted the learning of tinokot shel beit rabban.”
Therefore, in order to defeat the hand of Eisav, parents are obligated to invest in the education of their children.
Let us now add another idea regarding the unique qualities of Yaakov.
9 Rabbi Yosef Chaim explains (Birkat Chaim, Vayishlach) that the word sarid, “survivor,” can be read as sar yad — “rulership of the hand.” Thus, “there will be no survivor from the house of Eisav” alludes to the nullification of the blessing, “the hands are the hands of Eisav.”
10 All the more so, the Torah study of yeshivah students and avreichim brings great protection to the people of their city. It is told that once, while Rabbi Moshe Feinstein was teaching a difficult sugya in yeshivah, someone reported that a child had been badly injured nearby and suggested that the learning be interrupted for Tehillim. Rabbi Moshe said that the child certainly was not Jewish. When the matter was checked, it was discovered that this was indeed the case. Rabbi Moshe explained that he was not speaking from prophecy; rather, at a time when the yeshivah was deeply immersed in Torah, it was not possible that such a tragedy would befall a Jewish child nearby (Lehitaneg Betaanugim, p. 323).
