This week's Torah portion, Va'etchanan, speaks about the mitzva of learning Torah, and contains the verse "...and you shall teach them to your children, to speak in them." In general, the mitzva of learning Torah consists of two separate commandments: The obligation each person has to learn Torah himself, and the obligation to teach Torah to others, especially one's children.
Although a person might naturally think that the mitzva of learning Torah oneself takes precedence over that of teaching others, we find that the opposite is true. Both Maimonides' writings and the Shulchan Aruch begin the section on the laws covering the learning of Torah with the duty a parent has to teach his children. Why is this the case? And furthermore, how can a person teach others before he himself is well versed enough in the subject matter?
From the emphasis on teaching children, we learn the proper approach as to how we must be when we begin to learn Torah, G-d's Divine wisdom and blueprint for the world. To understand this, let us examine the difference between Torah learning and the performance of mitzvot.
When a Jew does a mitzva he effects a change in the physical world, elevating and making holy the physical objects he uses in the mitzva's performance. The practical performance of the mitzva is therefore more important than the intentions for the action itself serves to bring spiritual illumination into the world.
Torah learning, on the other hand, serves to refine and elevate the individual. When a Jew studies Torah his intellect becomes united with the G-dly wisdom contained in the Torah and causes him to be a G-dly person whose thoughts are those of holiness.
To learn Torah properly one must have the sincere desire to understand G-d's wisdom without seeking self-aggrandizement or having other ulterior motives.
Before a Jew learns Torah, he must subjugate his own ego and ask, what does the Torah itself want from me? Without this prerequisite, say our Sages, Torah learning can even be detrimental and become a "poisonous drug."
Emphasizing the duty to teach our children before we ourselves learn the Torah stresses that our goal is to cultivate and emulate the child's purity and innocence regarding how he learns the Divinely written words.
We must likewise approach the Torah in the same way, and not try to "fit" what we have learned into the preconceived, jaded view of the world we sometimes acquire as we grow older. For all of us, no matter how old we are, are like young children to our Father in Heaven.
Adapted from the works of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
