01 Apr VAYIKRA: REACH THEM WHEN THEY’RE YOUNG

The first chapters of Parshat
Vayikra discuss the various
forms of sacrifices which
people would bring under
various circumstances.
The Rabbis in the Midrash
comment that when children are brought to
school to begin learning Torah, the first
subject they should learn – even before
Parashat Bereshit, the story of creation, and
even before the stories of the avot, of Yetziat
Mitzrayim and Matan Torah – is this
subject, the laws of the sacrifices.
The reason, the Midrash explains, is “since
the sacrifices are pure and the young
children are pure, let those who are pure
involve themselves in that which is pure.”
We have the children first learn the subject
of sacrifices in order to expose them to the
themes of kedushah (holiness
and taharah (purity), expressing that we
want them to remain holy and pure. Young
children are innocent and pure – and from a
very young age, we teach them about
matters of holiness and purity so that they
retain these qualities.
The Rabbis here are teaching us that if we

want to influence and motivate our children,
we need to reach them when they’re
young. We cannot wait until they are older
to teach them about Torah life and what it is
about; this process has to begin when they
are very young.
Parashat Vayikra marks the first time
Hashem spoke to Moshe inside
the Mishkan, which the people had just
built. The Torah tells us elsewhere that
Hashem’s voice came to Moshe from the
top of the aron, specifically, from in
between the two keruvim which were
placed on top of the aron. The keruvim were
images of young children. Hashem’s voice
came from the keruvim to teach us that
Hashem’s voice can be heard the clearest
when we are taught and trained from a
young age, as small children.
A young tree has soft branches that can be
bent with relative ease. As a tree grows
older, its branches become tough and
sturdy, such that they cannot bend. The
same is true of our children. In their
younger years, they are
impressionable. They are more open to our
guidance and influence. Once they grow
older, they become “tough” and resistant.

Of course, it is never too
late to learn and
change. But the older a
person gets, the more
difficult this
becomes. Parents need
to take advantage of
their children’s younger
years, the stage when
the children are tehorim,
pure, to expose them
to tehorim, to matters
of kedushah, in order to
influence them and
inspire them to follow
Torah.
As part of this effort, we need to be
especially careful about the kind of
messages we unintentionally convey to our
children. One example is through the
compliments we give them and
others. When children hear their parents

enthusiastically talk about how good-
looking a certain young woman is, the

children learn that this is what is
important. When children hear their parents
enthusiastically raving about other children
who are smart and get excellent grades,

they learn that what matters is intelligence
and test scores, as opposed to hard work
and effort.
We need to reach our children when they’re
young, to convey to them in their earlier
years that what matters most is their
connection to Hashem, their love of Torah,
their middot (fine character traits), and
hard work. These lessons cannot wait until
they’re older; it is when they are young
and pure that we must try to expose them
to pure, to the beauty and kedusha of Torah
values and Torah life.