Experience is Everything

The Torah tells us that when the Jewish people come into the Land of Israel and have their own nation, the King should read the entire Torah in the presence of the entire nation every seven years. The Torah states, “Gather together the nation, the men and the women and the children and the stranger who is in your gates, in order that they should hear and in order that they should learn and they will fear the Almighty, your God, and they will observe and fulfill this entire Torah” (Deuteronomy 31:12). Children have a tendency to make noise and can easily disturb older people who are trying to listen. Why then were the children brought to this event?

Rashi, the great commentator, cites the Talmud (Chagiga 3a) which states that the young children were brought along in order to bring reward to their parents. How were the parents rewarded? In addition to the spiritual merit for bringing the children, the children themselves were impacted by the tremendous event of the gathering of the whole Jewish people and by the King reading the entire Torah. For the rest of their lives it will be imprinted on their souls the importance of the Torah to the entire people.

This teaches us to do all that we can to teach children the importance of Torah at an early age. Every experience makes an impression; make certain to give your children many positive Torah experiences! Bring your children to synagogue every Shabbat!