Parshat Va’etchanan
In the portion of Va’etchanan, Moses reviews with the people the awesome events that occurred at the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. He emphasizes the importance of the commandment to “make them known to your children and to your children’s children (Deuteronomy 4:9).
The Ba’al HaTurim brings a tradition from Sefer HaTagin that in this phrase the letter nun is repeated three times and they are all written in a different form than is usual in order to emphasize that if one is a Torah scholar, and so is his son and grandson, then the Torah will be safeguarded and never depart from his descendants.
This idea reminds us of the verse that states that a cord of three strands is not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12). This verse on one hand relates to the three Patriarchs whose bond is the eternal unbroken foundation of the Jewish people to this day. Yet among individual families this same idea holds true. Only by parents giving over to their children the richness and love of Jewish tradition will it then be transmitted to their grandchildren.
This idea appears in a discussion in the Talmud whether a grandfather is obligated to teach his grandson Torah, as a number of verses in the Torah only mention a father teaching his son. Yet, how do we understand the verse quoted above to “make them known to your children and to your children’s children.” One opinion is that it is an obligation to teach his son but when a father teaches his son Torah is if he taught his son and his grandson and someone until the end of all generations (Kiddushin 30a). Thus, the connection between these three generations, creates a paradigm that when repeated again and again that ensures Jewish continuity. (Although the language in the Torah and the Talmud are expressed many times in the masculine form, it has become universal practice to apply these teachings to daughters as well).
Another opinion in the same Talmudic discussion is that anyone who teaches his grandchild Torah is as if he had personally received the Torah from Mount Sinai. This is derived from the juxtaposition of verses: “Make them known to your children and to your children’s children” which is followed immediately by: “the day that you stood before God, your God, at Chorev [Sinai].”
A beautiful story is then related that one-time Rabbi Chiya bar Abba saw Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi who had thrown a sheet over his head and was hurriedly bringing his grandson to the synagogue for his lesson and Torah. He asked him what he was doing. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, had rushed out of the house so quickly he did not have a head covering, so he had thrown a sheet over his head. As to why he had to hurry so much, he answered by saying, “him is it a small thing to fulfill what is written, “make them known to your children and to your children’s children” which is likened to “the day that you stood before God, your God, at Chorev [Sinai].”
In the Uva L’Tzion section of the morning prayer it includes words in the name of God from the prophet Isaiah (59:20-21): “And to Zion a redeemer will come, to them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says God. And as for Me, this is my covenant with them said God, My spirit that is upon you and My words that I have placed in your mouth shall not be withdrawn from your mouth nor the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring, said God, from this moment and forever.”
Jewish continuity over thousands of years is accomplished by the transmission of tradition from parents to children and parents to grandchildren. As the miraculous survival of the Jewish people attests: A cord of three strands is not easily broken.
