Shemirat HaLashon שמירת הלשון

And let a man not err, saying: "What is all this fuss about removing my son from Torah? Can't he be a Jew, like other Jews, without it?"

But, in truth, it is not so, my brother, for it has already been proved from what Chazal have said in Berachoth 71b and in several other places, and from what has occurred in our times, too, in the crucible of experience, that a Jew taken from Torah is like a fish taken from the water. Though it may have some life left in it, it will surely die in the end. It is possible for a fish to live a few hours so long as the water is yet on its body; but when it dries up, it will die immediately, for its life-element has expired.

The same is true of the essential holiness of the L-rd which hovers over His people, Israel, through which they will merit to endure forever, as it is written (Devarim 4:4): "And you who cleave to the L-rd your G-d are all alive today, etc.", concerning which Chazal have said that this is only through the agency of Torah. And when men separate themselves from Torah, so long as the "moistness" of Torah is still upon them they still occupy themselves somewhat with its mitzvoth, to which they were accustomed in the past. But with the passage of time, as the moistness begins to dry, they also begin to forsake mitzvoth, and who knows to what this can lead. And, in truth, this is the intent of the verses in Parshath Bechukothai (Vaykira 26:14-15): "And if you do not hearken to Me (to toil in Torah, etc., as Rashi explains there), and you do not do all these mitzvoth (If you do not learn, you will not do), and if (as a result of not doing) you despise (the doers of) My statutes, and if your souls repel (the exemplifiers of) My ordinances, (the sages), not to do (i.e., preventing others from doing) all of My mitzvoth (i.e., if you deny that they are 'My' mitzvoth) to break My covenant" (i.e., to deny Me — seven transgressions, the first leading to the second, etc., all this as explained by Rashi according to Torath Cohanim.)

And I have hereby explained what we say each day in the second section of the Shema (Devarim 11:13): "And it shall be if you hearken… to love… (Ibid. 16): Pay heed unto yourselves… and you shall serve other gods, etc." For is it not the way that when a man exhorts his son to follow the right path, he does so in accordance with his [the son's nature]? If he [already] walks on that path, he exhorts him to summon up more strength and not depart from it; and if he walks waywardly according to the whims of his heart and desires to leave him, he commands him at the least not to depart from the way of the L-rd altogether, G-d forbid. And if he would do the reverse, and command his son who walks in the right path not to depart from the way of the L-rd and change his faith, G-d forbid, this would be neither to his honor nor to his son's. And here does the beginning of the section "And it shall be, etc." not speak of men who fear the L-rd and love His name with their whole heart and soul, as it is written "to love, etc."? How, then, can we understand "lest your heart be enticed, etc." And, furthermore, the phrase "and you turn astray" (vesartem) would seem to be superfluous.

But the truth is according to its plain meaning. For in the beginning of the section it is written (Ibid. 13): "and to serve Him with all your heart," concerning which Chazal have said (Ta'anith 2a): "What is service of the heart? Prayer." And, therefore, Scripture states: "Pay heed unto yourselves lest your heart be enticed." That is, lest the yetzer entice you to say: "Why should I study Torah if I already love the L-rd, and, thank G-d, I pray every day? This is enough, and what of it if I do turn away now completely from Torah [study] or if I turn my son away from it? Does he not pray every day?" Therefore, Scripture comes and apprises us that the end of turning away from Torah will be "and you will serve other gods," as we wrote in the beginning, that this is comparable to a fish's being taken from water, in which instance his very life will depart in a short time. So with the Jew who departs from Torah [study] completely and swerves from the path of mussar to a different path. He is not far from the service of other gods. (And this is obvious, for thus is it found in Sifrei on this verse: "lest your heart be enticed, and you turn astray, and you serve, etc." — once a man separates himself from Torah, he immediately cleaves to idolatry. And that is why Scripture says afterwards (Ibid. 18): "And you shall place these, My words, upon your heart." That is, let these words of Mine — that when a man turns aside from Torah [study], he will come, G-d forbid, in the end, to idolatry — enter your heart. And, therefore (Ibid. 19): "You shall teach them to your sons, etc." and not be satisfied with your son's fulfilling the mitzvah of prayer alone. And for this reason, Scripture concludes (Ibid. 21): "So that your days be prolonged and the days of your children on the earth," as Chazal say in Perek Chelek: "The exiles are gathered in only in the merit of Torah."

All this [applied] even in the earlier generations; how much more so, in ours, when so many have strayed from the way of the L-rd by separating from the Torah. This is certainly "a time to do" for [the sake of] the L-rd, and to strengthen our sons in Torah and tradition.

And this is the language of the holy Zohar in Parshath Terumah on Psalms 129:126): "It is a time to act for the L-rd," viz.: "So long as the Torah endures in the world and men occupy themselves with it, the Holy One Blessed be He rejoices in the work of His hands and rejoices in all of the worlds, and the heavens and the earth remain standing. What is more, the Holy One Blessed be He gathers all His tribunal and says to them: 'See the holy people that I have on the earth, by whom the Torah is adorned. See My handiwork, about which you have said: 'What is man that You remember him?'" And when they see the joy of their Master in His people, they immediately open [their mouths] and say (I Chronicles 17:21): 'Who is like Your people, Israel, one nation in the land?' But when Israel neglect Torah, His strength, as it were, weakens, wherefore "it is a time [for you] to act for the L-rd.' These are the tzaddikim who are left. They must gird their loins and perform good deeds, so that the Holy One Blessed be He will strengthen Himself to rejoice with the tzaddikim and with His camps and battalions. Why so? (Psalms, Ibid.): [For] 'they have violated Your Torah,' and the men of the world do not occupy themselves with it as is fitting."

And especially in our times, when we see with our own eyes in our many sins that the youth who have departed from the Torah have also abandoned the observance of Shabbath and other observances, it certainly devolves upon every father to strengthen his sons in the Torah of the L-rd and to train him in His mitzvoth, as it is written (Mishlei 22:6): 'Train the youth, etc.' And his reward for this will be very great, far greater than that of the preceding generations, as we find in Avoth d'R. Nathan 3:6: "Better a hundred times with suffering than one time without suffering," and (Ezekiel 44:15): "But the Cohanim - the Levites, the sons of Tzaddok, who kept the keeping of My sanctuary when the children of Israel strayed from Me — they shall draw near to Me to serve Me, etc."

What emerges for us from all of these chapters is that each one must see to it to sanctify his faculty of speech with the holiness of Torah and to strengthen the pillar of Torah, and by doing so, we will merit the coming of the Redeemer, speedily, in our days, Amen.