Teach The Torah!

Teach the Torah

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Commandant 10
D’varim 6:7
⁷You shall teach them thoroughly to your children and you shall speak of them while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise.
Mattit'yahu 12:34-35
³⁴Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.³⁵A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.

Ur 6:45
⁴⁵A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil Łtreasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Ephesians 6:4
⁴And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of HASHEM .

Kefa Rishon 3:15
¹⁵But sanctify HASHEM God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

Commandment 11
D’varim 6:7
⁷You shall teach them thoroughly to your children and you shall speak of them while you sit in your home, while you walk on the way, when you retire and when you arise.

Commandment 12
D’varim 6:8
⁸Bind them as a sign upon your arm and let them be ornaments between your eyes.

Sh’mot 13:9,16
⁹And it (keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread) shall be for you a sign on your arm and a reminder between you eyes — so that HASHEM ’s Torah may be in your mouth — for with a strong hand HASHEM removed you from Egypt.

¹⁶And it shall be a sign upon your arm, and an ornament between your eyes, for with a strong hand HASHEM removed us from Egypt’”

Mishlei 6:21
²¹Tie them to your heart always, entwine them upon your neck.

Commandment 13
D’varim 6:8
⁸Bind them as a sign upon your arm and let them be ornaments between your eyes.

Commandment 84
B’midbar 15:38-40
³⁷HASHEM said to Moses, saying, ³⁸“Speak to the Children of Israel and say to them that they shall make themselves tzitzit on the corners of their garments, throughout their generations. And they shall place upon the tzitzit of each corner a thread of turquoise wool. ³⁹It shall constitute tzitzit for you, that you may see it and remember all the commandments of HASHEM.⁴⁰So that you may remember and perform all My commandments and be holy to your God. ⁴¹I am HASHEM , your God, who removed you from the land of Egypt to be an God unto you; I am HASHEM God.”

The word tzitzit properly denotes an ornament resembling a flower. From verse 39, we learn that these were emblematically the commands of God. That there is any analogy between a fringe and a precept, it would be bold to assert; but when a thing is appointed to represent another, no matter how different, that first object becomes the legitimate representative or sign of the other.

Mattit'yahu 9:20-22
²⁰And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. ²¹For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.”²²But Yeshua turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.
Ur 8:43:44
⁴³Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any,⁴⁴came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped.

Commandment 15
D’varim 6:9
⁹And write them on the doorposts of your house and upon your gates.

Mizmor 119:142,151
¹⁴²Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your Torah (Law) is truth.

¹⁵¹Yet You are nearby, O HASHEM , and all Your commandments are true.

Mishlei 3:3
³Kindness and truth will not forsake you. Bind them upon your neck; inscribe them on the tablet of your heart.

Commandment 16
D’varim 31:10-13
¹⁰Moses commanded them, saying, “At the end of seven years, at the time of the Sabbatical year, during the Sukkot festival, ¹¹when all Israel comes to appear before HASHEM , your God, in the place that He will choose, you shall read this Torah before all Israel, in their ears. ¹²Gather together the people — the men, the women, and the small children, and your stranger who is in your cities — so that they will hear and so that they will hear, and they shall fear HASHEM , your God, and be careful to perform all the words of this Torah.¹³And their children who do not know — they shall hear and they shall learn to fear HASHEM , your God, all the days that you live on the land to which you are crossing the Jordan, to possess it.”

Corinthians Rishon 7:19
¹⁹Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.

Acts 15:21
²¹For Moshe has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.

Timothy Shanee 3:14-15
¹⁴But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, ¹⁵and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Messiah Yeshua.

Ephesians 6:4
⁴And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of HASHEM .

Commandment 17
D’varim 17:18-20
¹⁸It shall be that when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself two copies of this Torah in a book, from before the Kohen'im, the Levi. ¹⁹It shall be with him, and he shall read from it all the days of his life, so that he will learn to HASHEM, his God, to observe all the words of this Torah and these decrees, to perform them, ²⁰so that his heart does not become haughty over his brethren and not turn from the commandment right or left, so that he will prolong years over his kingdom, he and his sons amid Israel.

Mishneh hattorah hazzoth, "a duplicate of this law." translated by the Septuagint, το δευτερουομιου τουτο, this Deuteronomy. From this version, both the Vulgate and all the modern versions have taken the name of this book; and from it the original word, the Jews call it Mishneh.

Yochanan 5:39
³⁹You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.⁴⁰But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
Corinthians Shanee 12:7
⁷And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.

Timothy Shanee 3:15
¹⁵and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Messiah Yeshua.

Kefa Rishon 5:5
⁵Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for“HASHEM's blight is upon the house of the wicked; He blesses the abode of the righteous.” ^{Mishlei
3:34}
^{Commandment 18

D’varim 31:19

¹⁹So now, write this song¹ for yourselves, and teach it to the Children of
Israel, place it in their mouth, so that this song shall be for Me a witness against the
Children of Israel.
[Scholars have interpreted this verse to mean every Jew
must own a
Sefer Torah.]
Yochanan 12:48-50

⁴⁸He who rejects Me, and does not receive My
words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the
last day.⁴⁹For I have not spoken on My own
authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I
should speak. ⁵⁰And I know that His command is
everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak.

Hebrews 3:7-11

⁷Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Even
today, if we but heed His call! ⁸Do not
harden your heart as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah, in the Wilderness; ⁹When your ancestors tried
Me, though
they had seen My deed. ¹⁰For forty years I was angry
with the generation; then I said, ‘An errant-hearted people are they, and they have not know My ways.’
¹¹Therefore, I have sworn in My anger that

‘They shall not enter My land of contentment.’”
^{Mizmor 95:7-11}

Commandment 19

D’varim 8:10

¹⁰You will eat and you will be satisfied, and
bless HASHEM,
your God, for the good Land that He will
give you.

Mattit'yahu 14:19

¹⁹Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He
took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and
gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.

Yochanan 6:23

²³however, other boats came from Tiberias, near the place where they
ate bread after Yeshua had given thanks—

Corinthians Rishon 10:31

³¹Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to
the glory of God.

Thessalonians
Rishon 5:16-18

¹⁶Rejoice always, ¹⁷pray without ceasing, ¹⁸in
everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Messiah
Yeshua
for
you.}
Timothy Rishon 4:4-5
⁴For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving; ⁵for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

What does all this have to do with teaching the Torah? To many, the Torah still remains incomprehensible (I'm referring to people that have already resolved to keep it!). And those of you that have children are now responsible to teach those children the Torah. Many write to me and say, "Okay, I agree. I can now keep the Torah. Now what?" And of course this is why I write the scrolls, so that I am keeping commandment # 10 & 14.

Many of us teach best by example. How do you teach your children to pray? By praying. How do you teach them to keep the commandments? By keeping them. Many of the commandments we have are designed to make us remember all the commandments, such as the tzitzit. In the same way, children remember best by seeing.

In the same way, one of the first things I do at churches is put on a tallit. It immediately shocks them into a realization — "This is different." I have taught them about the Tallit by putting it on. Of course, you explain it too, but by example works best of all. So if your children see you put on the Tallit and tefillin (#'s 12-14) and put mezuzah on the doorposts (#15), you have taught by example. Example #19 is also one of the best witnesses for children — The Birkat Hamatzon (Blessing when eating). They learn by example!

And so do many adults. Christianity has taught us to thank God before we eat — Judaism does as well. The Commandments add that we should thank God after we eat.

The reading of the Torah in a devotional sense (#16) remains the single greatest way to teach the Torah, outside of systematic study. It is far more easier to study when it has been read for three or more years, however. If your family reads it in a devotional way together daily, then after three years or so, your children will be able to engage in a systematic study of Torah, and Halachah. This is why every Jew was commanded to own a Sefer Torah. You can keep this in its most plain sense by buying a Bible, but I recommend actually coughing up the shekels for a Sefer Torah (you can get machine-made scrolls for $70, I think), and learning to read the Hebrew (w/cantillation).

If every Israelite was to own a Sefer Torah, how much more the king of Israel? He was to write it out himself, and keep it with him at all times (probably carried around behind him. The President of the United States is followed by a man with a briefcase, which could be used at any time to usher in mass destruction. (Death by Samsonite). How much better if he were followed around by the same man, but with a Sefer Torah? Certainly, modern events may not have happened...but alas, there was King David..). Kind of hard to pass a law against Torah when the Torah is always with you. And really hard to plead ignorance when you yourself copied it out! May all the leaders of this world do likewise!

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¹ D’varim 31:19. God commanded Moses and Y’hoshua to write the Torah and place the Scroll at the side of the Ark. It would remain as a constant reminder of Israel’s roots and the unchanging focus of its devotion. The Sages derive from this verse that every Jew is commanded to write a Sefer Torah, a commandment that can be fulfilled by writing a single letter of a complete scroll.