613 Mitzvot
Positive Mitzvah # 11
Studying and teaching the Torah

D'varim (Deuteronomy) 6.6-7
6 Vehayu hadevarim ha’eleh asher anochi metsavecha hayom al-levavecha.
Let these matters, which I command you today, be upon your heart.
7 Veshinantam levaneycha vedibarta bam beshivtecha beveytecha uvelechtecha vaderech uveshochbecha uvekumecha.
Teach them thoroughly to your children and speak of them while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise.

We now begin the section of mitzvot that relate to Torah study. In Hebrew this would be talmud Torah.

This passage is part of the Shema. This mitzvah is also repeated in the second paragraph of the Shema:

Devarim/Deuteronomy 11:19
Velimadetem otam et-beneychem ledaber bam beshivtecha beveytecha uvelechtecha vaderech uveshochbecha uvekumecha.
Teach them to your children, to discuss them, while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise.

The first thing is for the Torah to be upon your heart.

Yehoshua/Joshua 1:8
This Sefer Torah shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate thereon day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success."

We should time to study YHVH's Word both day and night. But we don't keep it to ourselves. We first are to teach it to our children. We are to thoroughly. The word for teach is shanan, It means to sharpen an arrow. Therefore it is written, "As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, So are the children of youth." (Tehillim/Psalms 127:4).

D'varim 4.9-10
Only take heed to yourself, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes saw, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life; but make them known unto your children and your children’s children; the day that you stood before YHVH your Elohey in Chorev, when YHVH said unto me: ‘Assemble Me the people, and I will make them hear My words that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

Tehillim (Psalms) 78:4-6
We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of YHVH, and his might, and the wonders which he has wrought. He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a Torah in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children; that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children,

It is our responsibility to teach our children about YHVH and His Torah.

The Sifre says: 'To your children, means to your students: we find that a man's talmidim are everywhere called his children, as it is said, 'And the sons of the prophets came forth.' So we should also teach other people the Torah as well. The Sifre also says in the same place: 'And you shall teach them diligently' - which means that [the words of the Torah] are to be fluent in your mouth, so that when a person asks any question concerning them, you are not to be halting in your answer to him, but you are to answer him at once.'

1 Kefa/Peter 3:15 But sanctify YHVH Elohim in your hearts; and always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear:

2 Timothy 3:14-16
But you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, recalling the people from whom you learned it; and recalling too how from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which can give you the wisdom that leads to deliverance through trusting in Yeshua the Messiah. "All Scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living;

When this was written, there was no "New Testament." So Timothy learned the Tanakh from his childhood. So it is possible to come to a trusting faith in Yeshua from the Tanakh alone!

Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Torah of YHVH, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Yisra'el.

Study of Torah includes not just learning about it, but doing it! Notice the process... Ezra studied the Torah, applied it in his live, and then taught it to others. Perhaps he evan taught the Torah by example!

Shalom v'brakhot v'simcha,
Moreh Chizkiyah Shlomo (Carl)