From the פסוק in this week's פרשה, פרשת ואתחנן, where it says ושננתם לבניך, you shall teach them to your children, which refers to the words of תורה, that you shall teach the words of תורה to your children. From that פסוק, we learn out the מצוה that every single איד is מחוייב in לימוד התורה, is obligated to learn תורה. As the רמב״ם writes in ספר המצוות, and also in the מצוות that are written in the beginning of his ספר יד החזקה, that from this פסוק ושננתם לבניך we learn out the מצוה of learning תורה. Even though, as the רמב״ם himself writes in ספר המצוות, נכפל פעמים רבות, this commandment of learning תורה is mentioned many times in the תורה, but nevertheless, the פסוק which teaches us that ציווי, that commandment, the פסוק which is counted as the מצוה of learning תורה in the מנין המצוות, in the list of מצוות, is this פסוק ושננתם לבניך, which means you shall teach them to your children. So we have to understand, why is it that the מצוה of learning תורה which is upon every single איד is written in the תורה בדווקא in a פסוק that talks about learning with the children? And the simple פשט is that it talks about learning with small children. Even though we know what the חז״ל say and the רמב״ם brings it down that when it says ושננתם לבניך, you should learn with your children, אלו התלמידים, it means that you should learn with תלמידים, with students, because תלמידים are called children, as the חז״ל bring the proofs as רש״י brings it also on the פסוק. But nevertheless, the simple meaning of the words are that you should teach it to your children. So it refers to children. And the truth is, there are some מפרשים that say that the reason that we have to teach other תלמידים is because they are like children. So essentially the מצוה is to teach the children, to your children. Being that others are also considered your children, you have to teach them too. So the basic פשט in the פסוק is that you have to teach it to your children. And we טאקע find that concerning learning תורה, there's a special דין that you have to teach even a קטן, even a small child. Like this we know that this דין that every single איד must be מחנך his children to מצוות, must see that his children perform all the מצוות while they are still young, while they are still קטנים before בר מצוה, is only a מצוה מדרבנן, which means מדאורייתא, from the תורה, there is no obligation on a child to do a מצוה at all. The רבנן put an obligation that there should be a מצוה of חינוך, and therefore, children under בר מצוה are also obligated to do the מצוות. And it's upon the father to see that the children do the מצוות. But it's only מדרבנן. Concerning learning תורה, there's a special דין מדאורייתא, from the תורה, that there's an obligation upon a father to teach his small children תורה. As the רמב״ם writes in the beginning of הלכות תלמוד תורה, אבל קטן אביו חייב ללמדו תורה, a child, a קטן under בר מצוה, his father is obligated to teach him תורה. שנאמר, the רמב״ם quotes the פסוק, as it says, ולמדתם אותם את בניכם לדבר בם, you should teach them to your children to speak in them. So from here we learn out that even the child under בר מצוה has to be taught תורה by his father. So there is an obligation on a father to teach a small child תורה. So even though the פסוק ושננתם לבניך is not the פסוק from where we learn out that you have to teach a child תורה, a small child תורה, but nevertheless, being that we see from the other פסוק that you have to teach even a קטן, even a small child תורה, so we understand already afterwards that when the פסוק says ושננתם לבניך, you should teach to your children, and as we said before, the simple פשט means actual children, not only תלמידים, this also includes small children.

So לכאורה we have to understand, why is it that the חיוב of learning תורה, the obligation that every איד has to learn תורה, is learned out from a פסוק that speaks about teaching children, teaching small children also? לכאורה, why shouldn't the פסוק have said every person should learn תורה, and from there we should have learned out that there is an obligation upon every איד to learn תורה? Why is it that the חיוב of learning תורה is learned out from a פסוק that בפשטות speaks about teaching children, and it seems also teaching small children? We also have to understand, why is it טאקע that there is a special דין by learning תורה that you have to teach a small child, a קטן, תורה מדאורייתא? Why is teaching תורה different than any other מצוה? Why is it that by other מצות, the whole דין of חינוך, that you have to see that your children, the קטנים, under בר מצוה, perform the מצות, is only a דין מדרבנן, but מדאורייתא from the תורה, there is no obligation to see that the children do מצות, but concerning תורה, there is an obligation מדאורייתא from the תורה on the father to see that his child learns תורה. There is an obligation on the father מדאורייתא to teach his child תורה. So this shows that there is some special connection between the מצוה of learning תורה to the ענין of learning with a child.

And the truth is, we see this connection much stronger in the רמב״ם. As we said before, right in the beginning of הלכות תלמוד תורה, the רמב״ם starts as follows: He says that, נשים ועבדים וקטנים פטורים מתלמוד תורה, women, slaves, and children are פטור from learning תורה, אבל קטן, אביו חייב ללמדו תורה, but a child, his father is obligated to teach him תורה. And he quotes the פסוק, as we said before. Then, first in הלכה ג׳, the רמב״ם writes that every person himself is obligated to learn תורה. So לכאורה we could ask a question, why is it that the רמב״ם starts the הלכות of תלמוד תורה with the חיוב of a father to teach his child? לכאורה he should have started with the דין that every single ייד is obligated to learn תורה. He should have started the הלכות, that there's an obligation on every ייד to learn תורה, and then to continue, that the obligation is not only upon himself, but he also has an obligation to teach his child. Because first, the רמב״ם should have written the general חיוב, the general obligation of learning תורה, that there is a חיוב upon every ייד to learn תורה. Then you could go into the details, that this חיוב is also upon the father to teach his child. And also, if we look at time, a person cannot teach his child unless he first learns himself. If he didn't learn himself, he doesn't know what to teach. So the רמב״ם should have first written that there is an obligation upon every ייד to learn תורה, there's a מצוה of תלמוד תורה, and then to go into the details, that this obligation also is upon a father to teach his child. Why did the רמב״ם write it different way? So the reason probably is, as we said before, that the מקור in the תורה, the source in the תורה, for where we know that a person himself is supposed to learn תורה, is taken from the פסוק ״ושננתם לבניך״. And since the source of the מצוה of learning תורה is from the פסוק ״ושננתם לבניך״, that talks about teaching children, therefore the רמב״ם, when he try tells us the דינים of learning תורה, he starts off first by telling us that you have to teach your child, because in the תורה, the תורה, too, tells us the מצוה of תלמוד תורה upon a person through telling us that he has to teach his children, ״ושננתם לבניך״. So the רמב״ם does the same thing, and first tells us that you have to teach your child. There is another reason that could be given for the רמב״ם, is because when a person grows up, first he's a child, then he grows up. So first he learns from his father when he's a child, and then he himself is obligated later on when he grows up. So therefore, the רמב״ם starts off by first telling us the דין that the child has to be taught by his father. But this answer is not such a good answer, because after all, the רמב״ם doesn't say that the child has to learn from his father. The רמב״ם is talking about the father. There is an obligation on the father to teach the child. So he is talking about the father. Now, the father, in order to teach his child, must first have learned himself. So לכאורה, the רמב״ם should have started with the הלכה that a person is supposed to learn תורה himself, and then tell us that he's supposed to teach his children. So the reason must be, why does the רמב״ם start with the דין that a father must teach his child? Because the דין of תלמוד תורה in the חומש, the דין that a person must learn תורה is told to us through the פסוק ״ושננתם לבניך״, that you have to teach your children. So the רמב״ם does the same and starts off by telling us a father must teach his child, and then he continues that a person must learn תורה himself. But the question is, why is it טאקע that the תורה starts off by telling us first that the father has to teach his child? Why is the מצוה of תלמוד תורה learned out from the פסוק ״ושננתם לבניך״? So this shows, as we said before, that there must be some special connection between learning תורה, the general מצוה of learning תורה, with the idea that a child is taught תורה. And as we also see it from the other דין, as we said before, that learning תורה is the only מצוה that מדאורייתא, there is an obligation upon a father to teach his child. Concerning other מצות, there is no obligation on the father to see that his child should perform the מצות, but con- learning תורה, there is an obligation מדאורייתא on the father to teach his child. This also shows that there is some special connection between learning תורה and the idea that a child learns תורה.

But the answer to this will be understood based on what we had explained in many שיעורים, that the approach a ייד is supposed to have to learning תורה is to realize that the תורה is not like a regular חכמה, like other types of חכמה in the world, חכמות חיצוניות, secular חכמות, which is only חכמה and nothing more. But the תורה is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, the תורה is the חכמה of השם. And the תורה is one with השם as the רמב״ם says הוא וחכמתו אחד. And therefore, when a person approaches to learn תורה, he has to realize that he is not learning a חכמה, but he is becoming united with השם. So he has to have the proper ביטול, as we would call it, the proper self-nullification before he starts learning תורה. As we say in שמונה עשרה, at the end of שמונה עשרה, ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה פתח לבי בתורתך. My נפש, which means I, will be like dust to everybody, open my heart to תורה. And the question that comes up is, what's the connection between these two statements? Why is it that we put the two together? We say ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, which is an expression of עניוות, of a person being humble, an expression of ביטול, and then we say open my heart to תורה. These are two separate things. But the answer is they're not two separate things. In order to be able to have פתח לבי בתורתך, to have an open heart to תורה, you first have to have ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה, you have to have the proper ביטול. As long as a person feels himself as a complete מציאות, he feels himself as something, a person is a בעל גאווה in simple words, he has an ego, so then he can't learn תורה properly. Why? Because when it comes to learning a regular חכמה, then it's the opposite: the more ego you have, the better you will learn, the more you feel confident in yourself, in your own brain, in your own mind, the more you will understand. But by תורה, the more of your own מציאות that you feel, the less you will understand the truth of the תורה. You might understand the חכמה of the תורה, but the truth of the תורה, the essence of the תורה, which is אלוקות, godliness, which is part of השם, that you will not grasp as long as you have your own מציאות, as long as you feel your own מציאות. But when a person nullifies his own מציאות, his own being, then he is a כלי, he is a vessel to actually grasp the truth and the essence of the תורה. The אמת, if we could go a step further, not only to grasp the essence of the תורה do you need the הקדמה, the introduction of the ביטול, but even to understand the אמת of the חכמה of the תורה, you also have to have the proper ביטול. Because there is such an idea which we know as מגלה פנים בתורה שלא כהלכה. There's a possibility for a person to learn false פשטים in the תורה. He could put these פשטים into the תורה, but really it's against what the תורה wants to say. As we find in the גמרא that there is a possibility for a person to be מטהר a שרץ בק״ן טעמים. There was a person that had a way of showing with 150 reasons why a שרץ, which the תורה says is טמא, is really טהור. So if a person approaches תורה with his own מציאות, and he relies on his own חכמה, then you could learn false פשטים in the תורה and come out with wrong conclusions. You could be מגלה פנים בתורה שלא כהלכה. The only way a person is guaranteed that he will be מכוון to the אמת, that he will really actually learn the right פשט and come out with the right conclusions, is if his approach to תורה is through ביטול. It's through knowing that the only reason he learns תורה, and the only reason he uses his שכל to understand the תורה, is only because השם wants him to do so. So therefore, he must use his שכל, he must הארעווע and learn תורה a lot, try to understand as much as he can, look deep into the תורה, but all of that is done because that's what השם wants him to do. This is the idea of ברכת התורה. Before we learn תורה we make a ברכה: אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו. We do this by every מצוה. But specifically by תורה, that we have to remember that the reason we're learning תורה is because קדשנו במצותיו, that השם made us holy with His מצוות and commanded us to learn תורה. And if we approach the תורה that way, then we can hope that we will be מכוון to the אמת, and we will understand the true שכל of the תורה, and we will be able to grasp the אמת, the truth of the תורה, the inner part of the תורה, which is the godliness of the תורה.

In which type of person do we actually see this, that they approach learning תורה not with their own שכל and with their own ego and with their own מציאות, but to accept what they are told, and they approach it in a much more spiritual way, that is by children. An adult, when he sits down to learn תורה, he could feel, \"Oh, I am here, I am a מציאות, I am a great תלמיד חכם, I am special, I am going to learn תורה.\" But when a child sits down to learn תורה, he doesn't have these feelings of ישות and גאווה and גסות and thickness of his own מציאות. A child, when he learns תורה, he has the proper ביטול when you learn תורה. And this is what the תורה is trying to tell us, that the source of the מצוה of תלמוד תורה is taken from a פסוק, ושננתם לבניך, you should teach your children, to show us that when an adult sits down to learn תורה, he has to learn with the same feeling as a child has when he starts learning תורה. And that is the reason why דווקא by the מצוה of תלמוד תורה, we find an obligation upon a father to teach his child, to show that part of the מצוה of learning תורה מדאורייתא is the child's way of learning תורה, to teach even the adults that their approach to תורה, to learning תורה, has to be like a child. And that is also the reason why the רמב״ם, when he starts הלכות תלמוד תורה, he doesn't start with the מצוה that every person has to learn תורה, he starts with the מצוה that a child has to learn תורה, to show us that the beginning of learning תורה, this is the beginning of the הלכות of learning תורה, which means the beginning and the approach that you have to have when you start learning תורה is that you are like a child. And if you have that approach, then the learning תורה of the ייד is a proper one, and the ייד will be מכוון לאמת and actually connect himself to השם through learning תורה.