Torah study and our attaching ourselves to Eretz Yisrael are linked to each other, as our parasha states: "Teach your children to speak of them, when you are at home, when traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up.... If you do this, you and your children will long endure on the land that G-d swore to your ancestors, promising that He would give it to them as long as the heavens are above the earth." (Deuteronomy 11:19,21)
Rashi comments on when one must start studying Torah, and how it must be done:
"'Teach your children to speak of them': As soon as your son knows how to speak, teach him the words, 'Moses prescribed the Torah to us, an eternal heritage for the congregation of Jacob.' (Deuteronomy 33:4) Let this be the means of teaching him to speak. From this, the rabbis derived that when a toddler begins to speak, his father should speak with him in Hebrew and should instruct him in the Torah."
A father has to accustom his son to speak words of Torah from early childhood, and he must explain to him that the Torah is "an eternal heritage for the congregation of Jacob." In other words, it has been the heritage of the Jewish People from time immemorial. As our sages taught, "Whoever refrains from teaching Jewish law to a pupil is considered to have kidnapped him from his ancestral heritage. The Torah is the eternal heritage of all of Israel, going back to the six days of creation." (Sanhedrin 91b)
It follows that Jews learning Torah lengthens our lives on our land: "If you do this [i.e., learning Torah], you and your children will long endure on the land that G-d swore to your ancestors."
In these times, when there are people talking about "disengaging" from the land of our life's blood, we have to increase our connection to Eretz Yisrael. We have to attach ourselves to Aliyah and to settling the entire land, including Gush Katif and Judea and Samaria, the Galilee and the Negev.
We have to attach ourselves to Eretz Yisrael by means of educating towards the love of the Land. We have to attach ourselves to Eretz Yisrael by studying and gaining familiarity with its virtues and the destiny that the Land holds for the Jewish People and for the entire world. We have to attach ourselves to Eretz Yisrael through understanding that our war over settling our land is a war of the sons of light against the sons of darkness setting out to extinguish the light of Israel - it will never be!
At a time like this, we must unite and strengthen the nation's spirit. The tried and true way of doing this has always been to attach ourselves to our roots. We must unite with our roots just as the branches of a tree are attached to their roots.
We have to effect a fundamental change in the Jewish State's approach to education. We have to educate towards studying our holy Torah, which is the eternal heritage of the entire Jewish People. Billions of shekels are spent in this country on education, and to our great chagrin, this enormous effort is not reflected in the morality, spirituality or values of our children, who are our future.
We have to take ourselves to task as individuals and as a nation, regarding our having "disengaged" from Judaism, and regarding the repercussions of that act. These have included nonsensical thoughts about disengaging from the land of our life's blood. Now is the time to attach ourselves once more to our Torah and our land.
By such means, may we be privileged to see with our own eyes how G-d shall "bring a redeemer to their children's children, lovingly, for the sake of His name." (Shemoneh Esreh prayer)
Rashi comments on when one must start studying Torah, and how it must be done:
"'Teach your children to speak of them': As soon as your son knows how to speak, teach him the words, 'Moses prescribed the Torah to us, an eternal heritage for the congregation of Jacob.' (Deuteronomy 33:4) Let this be the means of teaching him to speak. From this, the rabbis derived that when a toddler begins to speak, his father should speak with him in Hebrew and should instruct him in the Torah."
A father has to accustom his son to speak words of Torah from early childhood, and he must explain to him that the Torah is "an eternal heritage for the congregation of Jacob." In other words, it has been the heritage of the Jewish People from time immemorial. As our sages taught, "Whoever refrains from teaching Jewish law to a pupil is considered to have kidnapped him from his ancestral heritage. The Torah is the eternal heritage of all of Israel, going back to the six days of creation." (Sanhedrin 91b)
It follows that Jews learning Torah lengthens our lives on our land: "If you do this [i.e., learning Torah], you and your children will long endure on the land that G-d swore to your ancestors."
In these times, when there are people talking about "disengaging" from the land of our life's blood, we have to increase our connection to Eretz Yisrael. We have to attach ourselves to Aliyah and to settling the entire land, including Gush Katif and Judea and Samaria, the Galilee and the Negev.
We have to attach ourselves to Eretz Yisrael by means of educating towards the love of the Land. We have to attach ourselves to Eretz Yisrael by studying and gaining familiarity with its virtues and the destiny that the Land holds for the Jewish People and for the entire world. We have to attach ourselves to Eretz Yisrael through understanding that our war over settling our land is a war of the sons of light against the sons of darkness setting out to extinguish the light of Israel - it will never be!
At a time like this, we must unite and strengthen the nation's spirit. The tried and true way of doing this has always been to attach ourselves to our roots. We must unite with our roots just as the branches of a tree are attached to their roots.
We have to effect a fundamental change in the Jewish State's approach to education. We have to educate towards studying our holy Torah, which is the eternal heritage of the entire Jewish People. Billions of shekels are spent in this country on education, and to our great chagrin, this enormous effort is not reflected in the morality, spirituality or values of our children, who are our future.
We have to take ourselves to task as individuals and as a nation, regarding our having "disengaged" from Judaism, and regarding the repercussions of that act. These have included nonsensical thoughts about disengaging from the land of our life's blood. Now is the time to attach ourselves once more to our Torah and our land.
By such means, may we be privileged to see with our own eyes how G-d shall "bring a redeemer to their children's children, lovingly, for the sake of His name." (Shemoneh Esreh prayer)