The Rambam at the beginning of
Hilchos Talmud Torah writes that a father is obligated to teach his son Torah
which is derived from the pasuk "vi-limaditom osam es bineichem".
The Rambam
continues in halacha beis and teaches that just as a person is obligated to
teach his son he is also obligated to teach his grandson which is derived from
the pasuk "Vihodatem livanecha ulivnei banecha etc" You must tell
your son and grandson the day you stood before Hashem at Sinai.
He continues
that not only must one teach his son and grandson he but every wise person in
Klal Yisrael must teach Torah as it says "Vishinantom livanecha" and
we find that students are called sons as it say "The sons of the Prophets
went out" [and this pasuk is referring to the students of the Prophets].
He concludes that the reason that the Torah singled out a father and a grandfather is because
their child/grandchild comes first.
It emerges from this Rambam that
there are three psukim from which we derive an obligation to teach Torah:
Vi-limaditom, vi-hodatom and vi-shinantom. Chazal had a tradition that the
first two psukim are talking about literal children and the third pasuk is
referring to figurative spiritual children i.e. talmidim. It is interesting to
explore this matter further
The Sifree derives from the pasuk
"Vilimaditem osam es bineichem li-dabeir bom" that when ones child
learns to speak he should teach him Torah [and lashon hakodesh!]. It is clear
that this is referring to one's literal child because how would one know when
somebody elses child begins to speak and at that exact time be obligated to
teach him Torah? It MUST be talking
about one's literal child about whom he knows the moment he begins to talk. The
pasuk Vi-hodatom livanecha ulivnei banecha must also be talking about literal
grandchildren because if it refers to talmidim then who are the grandchildren??
Everybody he taught is his child so who is the grandchild? It must be talking
about biological grandchildren.
We have a source that "banecha"
is referring to students so we expound the pasuk "Vishinantom
livanecha" to be referring to students. The gemara in Kiddushin learns
from this pasuk that one should learn all areas of Torah [al tikree
vishinanatom ela vishilashtom, shlish mikra, shlish mishna, shlish Talmid] and
that one should have a clear mastery over the Torah [she-yehei divrei Torah
mechudadim bi-feecha]. This obligation to teach the breadth and depth of Torah
can certainly not apply to everyone which is why the Rambam carefully writes
"Kol chochom vi-chochom" – not everyone is obligated to teach Torah
only chachomim.
[From the sefer Imrei
Dovid page 6 – there is more but my computerized copy is missing two pages:-)]
A comment on the Rambam – He asked
why the Torah singled out a father and grandfather if everyone is obligated to
others Torah [and answered that one's own child comes first]. I have a simple
answer – The Torah is telling us that ALL fathers are obligated to teach their
sons Torah unlike someone else's son who one must only teach if he is a
chochom. Why did the Rambam not say that and felt compelled to explain
otherwise [that one's own child comes first]?
Another note: Many mechanchim are so
dedicated to their students sometimes their very own children suffer from spiritual
neglect. The Rambam is setting us on the path of emes and teaches that one's
own children come first.
