Musar sobre Deuteronómio 6:7

And know that there are sublime virtues given over in the positive commandments such as: The virtues of free choice, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 30:19), “and choose life”; and the virtues of Torah study, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 6:7), “and you shall speak about them;” and the virtues of walking in the ways of the Lord, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 28:9), “and you shall walk in His ways;” and the virtues of contemplation of the greatness of the Lord, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 4:39), “Know therefore this day and keep in mind that the Lord alone is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other,” and David said (Psalms 14:2), “The Lord looks down from heaven on mankind to find a man of understanding, a man who seeks God”; and the virtues of remembrance of His kindnesses,” as it is stated (Deuteronomy 8:2), “Remember the whole way,” and it is [also] stated (Deuteronomy 8:6), “And you shall know that the Lord your God disciplines you just as a man disciplines his son,” and David said (Psalms 107:43), “he will contemplate the kindnesses of the Lord,” and said (Psalms 26:3), “For Your kindness is across from my eyes”; and the virtues of holiness, as it is stated (Leviticus 11:44), “and you shall sanctify yourselves and you shall be holy”; and the virtues of worship, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 10:20), “and He shall you worship;” and the virtues of fear, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 10:20), “And you shall fear the Lord”; and the virtues of love, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 6:5), “And you shall love the Lord, your God;” and the virtues of clinging, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 10:20), ”to Him shall you cling.” There are several levels to each of these, as will be explained, with God’s help. And man was created for the sake of these virtues, as it is stated (Isaiah 43:7), “All who are linked to My name, whom I have created for My glory.” And what is the hope of a creation if it does not make the things for which it was created, the toil of his soul and his main occupation?

Commandment 419 requires us to diligently teach the Torah to our children (6,7).

If an outstanding Torah giant such as Moses saw fit to seek elucidation from G–d concerning any doubts he entertained, how much more must we learn how important it is for us – who do not compare to Moses in the slightest degree – to constantly review the text we study in order to be certain that we have not misunderstood any of it. Moses, of course, exhorted the people to be sure to have the right intentions when studying Torah, as we know from 4,39: "Know therefore this day and keep in mind that the Lord alone is G–d in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other."

And the Torah leads one to good deeds. For when a man occupies himself with Torah, and learns what is the punishment for sins and the reward for good deeds, then he sets his heart to do good. And the effort required in studying the Torah causes him to forget and restrains him from sin, while idleness leads to sin and brings him down to the nether world. Therefore, a man should be alert to occupy himself always with the Torah — day and night — even when he walks along the road or when he lies in his bed. And if he is not able to study by heart, let him think in his heart about what he has learned and let his mind be on his study, so as not to remove the thought of it from his heart, and then he will have fulfilled "But thou shalt meditate therein day and night" (Josh. 1:8); for the Scripture does not say, "You shall speak about it day and night," but "You shall meditate about it," and meditation is in the heart. And concern ing this it is said, "And shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" (Deut. 6:7, 11:19). And our Sages took pride in the fact that they did not walk four cubits without discussing the Torah. Either they would learn and study or they would think in their hearts about what they had heard concerning the Torah, or about their studies.

After this, because of the greatness of our sins, troubles multiplied and our academies of study diminished. And the later Tosafot became very difficult for them to understand and they could not bear the burden. Then came other great ones and abridged those Tosafot, everyone according to his wisdom, to make this study easier for the man of his generation. And even in those days there were still men who knew all of the Talmud completely and knew the commandments from their knowledge of the Talmud, until it came about that the Jews were driven from France (1391), where they were holding strongly to the Torah and were studying it with great diligence, just as the Early Sages had done in the days of the Talmud, when the principal goal of study was to review the Talmud over and over again in order to fulfill what they said (Sifré to Deut. 6:7, Kiddushin 30a), "And ye shall teach them diligently to thy children": "May the words of the Torah be sharp in your mouth, so that if anyone should ask you a matter of law you will not stutter and give him any answer but you will give him the corect answer at once." For it is impossible that the commandments will be on the tip of a man's tongue, so that he can readily respond to a questioner, unless he has reviewed many times, as they said, "He who has repeated his chapter one hundred times is not to be compared with him who has repeated it a hundred and one times" (Hagigah 9b).

It is stated, “And you shall teach them sharply to your sons, etc.” (Deuteronomy 6:7). This is an admonition to fathers that they must study with their sons personally and sharpen their wits so that they do not approach the Torah in a dull manner. And if the father is not himself a scholar, he is commanded, “And you shall speak of them.” That is, let him speak with teachers to persuade them to study with his sons. He must also guide his children in the ways of business and proper conduct and in all these matters he must see to it that they do not to transgress the Torah by so much as a hairsbreadth, Heaven forbid.

It is well known that in order to rehabilitate oneself spiritually one must exercise תשובה, תפלה וצדקה, repentance, prayer and the performance of charitable deeds. All of these three factors of man's rehabilitation depend on his mouth. Prayer and the reciting of G–d's praises are, of course, functions of the mouth. We know that repentance has to include verbalizing one's confession and one's resolution not to sin again. The Torah in 30,14 mentions that Torah is easy of access, i.e. בפיך ובלבבך לעשות. Rabbi Yitzchak says (Eruvin 54) that the Torah is easy to fulfill, לעשות, once one has repented both by mouth and in one's heart. Confession of one's sins with a broken heart is the principal ingredient of repentance. Charity, too, involves the mouth. Our sages (Baba Batra 9b) say that anyone who gives charity acquires six blessings; if someone also tries to make the recipient feel better by kind and encouraging words he will qualify for eleven blessings. Interestingly enough we have three words which symbolize three aspects of repentance, i.e. צום, קול, ממון, each one of which has a numerical value of 136. This suggests that all three aspects of תשובה are of equal importance. Stated differently, תשובה, צדקה, and תפלה equal קול. The very first part of our פרשה alludes to all the three ingredients of repentance. The Torah speaks about going to war, the plain meaning of which refers, of course, to actual warfare and battles with the enemy. Over and beyond this, however, the paragraph refers to the ongoing battle between man and his evil urge. Many of our commentators are at pains to point this out in their commentary on the relevant section in פרשת שופטים when they comment on the verse discussing the siege laid to a city (20,19). In actual fact, the war with his evil urge is the greatest battle man has to fight in this life. The matter is illustrated in the Talmud by the story of the elderly sage who met soldiers of the army of Alexander the Great at the time of his victorious return from a major battle. These soldiers were in a very exuberant frame of mind. The sage, while he congratulated them on their victory, pointed out that the victory they had won was minor, and that they had to get ready for the battle of their lives against the evil urge. This is what the sages meant when they described the whole paragraph of the יפת תואר as an illustration of man's ongoing battle against his baser instincts (Kidushin 21). By extending this allegory a little further we may come to understand the whole reason why a מלחמת רשות, a war which is expansionary, is allowed: We are always permitted to conduct aggressive action against our evil urges. We can be sure of G–d's ongoing support in that undertaking once we make the first move in the struggle against the evil urge. Our sages point out that we would be unable to subdue the יצר הרע without G–d's active assistance, but that we have G–d's promise: ונתנו בידו, "He will deliver him (the evil urge) into your hand" (21,10). It is significant that the Torah here employs the singular whereas in פרשת שופטים it speaks in the plural (20,2—20,3--20,4). This may be a reminder that the fight against the evil urge can only be fought on a person-to-person basis. We have a tradition that a nation neither succumbs to another nation nor to the Jewish people unless its protective spirit in the Celestial Regions had first suffered defeat. We have pointed out examples of this such as Israel observing "Egypt" instead of "Egyptians" "dead on the beaches of the sea" (Exodus 14,30). We learn from all this that our enemy (the evil urge), assumes many guises, i.e. attacks us in the plural, and this is why the Torah always describes our enemy in the plural (אויביכם, אל תערצו מפניהם). We have to battle all these manifold "enemies" because each transgression we commit creates a negative force in the world which comes back to haunt us. All of these negative forces created by our very selves are presided over and directed against us by Samael/Satan/Angel of Death, etc. The Torah describes victory over this multifaceted but essentially single force with the words: ונתנו ה' אלוקיך בידך ושבית שביו, "The Lord your G–d will deliver him into your hand and you will take him captive." Taking this enemy prisoner is possible only with the help of Torah study and מצוה observance. David describes this victory over the evil works in Psalms 68,19: He speaks about: עלית למרום שבית שבי, "You went up to the heights, having taken captives."