Shmiras HaLashon י"ג ניסן - Nissan 13 - One-Hundred-and-Ninety-First Day

© 2008 by Robert Lepor. All rights reserved.

In addition [to the fact that many people have become lax from their involvement in Torah study], they also do not encourage their children [to involve themselves in] Torah [study] and do not send them to [a Torah] school, except to the point that they know a little bit of Chumash. Woe and alas that such has occurred in our days! [The above is especially problematic and tragic, for] isn’t the halacha thath was determined, [as brought in] “Yoreh Deah”, in siman 245, sif 6, known, [that being] that wherever it is possible for the father, it is incumbent (a mitzvah) upon him to hire [someone] to teach [his son] until he will know mishna and gemara, halachos and aggados.

I know the justification [of these fathers], for they will say that [their sons] are pressed for time. However, in reality, when they will contemplate [this matter] thoroughly to themselves, they will know that it is only the Yetzer [HaRa who] is misleading them. [The father would arrive at the above realization], for isn’t [it true] with respect to other matters which are only of physical benefit to the son, every person helps his son with all of his ability, [even] more than his ability, and [even] there are many instances that he will put his own life in danger of destruction on [his son’s] behalf, that being that he will do things that are not in line with halacha [with respect to mitzvos that are] between one person and his fellow and [mitzvos that are] between the person and HaShem, and he [nevertheless] blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘There shall be [peace for me, for [by acting in such a manner], I am thereby performing [acts of] righteousness at every moment [in order] to sustain the members of my household. [However], at the time that he is required to encourage his son to [involve himself in] Torah [study, so] that he will know how to serve HaShem, and he thereby brings life of The World to Come to his son and himself, as we shall copy later on from the midrashim of our Sages of Blessed Memory, he says that [his son] is pressed for time. Behold, [the above behavior of the father] resembles that which the pasuk [in sefer “Yishayahu” says, as follows]: “And you have not called Me, Ya’akov, for you have wearied Me, Israel” (43; 22), precisely within Me. [The following is taught] in [the] Midrash on the [aforementioned] pasuk: “[The person] performs business dealings every day – and he is not wearied, [when he] prays – he becomes wearied”. (Yalkut Shimoni on [sefer] “Yishayahu”, remez 457)