{"id":7796,"date":"2016-01-24T01:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-01-23T23:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/?p=7796"},"modified":"2016-07-28T17:07:08","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T14:07:08","slug":"01-24-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/01-24-01\/","title":{"rendered":"01. The Mitzva of <em>\u0124inukh<\/em>, Educating One\u2019s Children<\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is a Torah commandment to teach Torah to children. Thus we read: \u201cTeach them to your children\u201d (Devarim 11:19). The primary objective of this teaching is to ensure that the children observe all the Torah\u2019s instructions: \u201cStudy them and be careful to do them\u201d (Devarim 5:1). Therefore, the Sages stated that alongside the mitzva to teach children Torah is the obligation to educate them toward mitzva observance. For how can they be taught the <em>mitzvot<\/em> without getting used to keeping them in practice? Thus, there is a Torah commandment both to teach children Torah and to accustom them to keeping the <em>mitzvot<\/em> in general. Nevertheless, the actual observance of specific <em>mitzvot<\/em> by the child is a rabbinic obligation.<\/p>\n<p>A child should be educated to keep the positive commandments from the time that he can understand what the mitzva involves, and can properly observe it. Thus, the appropriate age for each mitzva varies in accordance with its complexity and the difficulty of its observance. For example, a boy should be educated about <em>tzitzit<\/em> once he knows how to put them on, can make sure that there are two sets of strings in back and two in front, and can recite the <em>berakha<\/em>. However, since one may only put on <em>tefilin <\/em>if he is able to maintain a clean body and utter concentration, a boy should only be educated about this mitzva shortly before his bar mitzva (<em>Sukka<\/em> 42a; MB 343:3).<\/p>\n<p>The age at which we begin to educate children about <em>mitzvot<\/em> is about six or seven because that is when children start to study Torah in earnest and thus can begin to keep most <em>mitzvot<\/em> properly. This applies to <em>berakhot<\/em> and prayers as well. The age of <em>\u0125inukh<\/em> is six or seven, as that is when most children can begin to do them properly. Nevertheless, we begin habituating them to recite <em>berakhot<\/em> and prayers from around the age of three, just as they start learning Torah at that age (BB 21a; <em>Sukka<\/em> 42a; SA YD 245:5).<\/p>\n<p>The same principle applies to <em>kiddush<\/em> and <em>havdala<\/em>; from the age of three we begin to encourage the children come and listen. When the child understands the idea of Shabbat and can listen properly to <em>kiddush<\/em> and <em>havdala<\/em>, we make sure that he does so. If he is not present when <em>kiddush<\/em> or <em>havdala<\/em> is made, he should recite it himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is a Torah commandment to teach Torah to children. Thus we read: \u201cTeach them to your children\u201d (Devarim 11:19). The primary objective of this teaching is to ensure that the children observe all the Torah\u2019s instructions: \u201cStudy them and be careful to do them\u201d (Devarim 5:1). Therefore, the Sages stated that alongside the mitzva [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01-24"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>01. The Mitzva of \u0124inukh, Educating One\u2019s Children - Peninei Halakha<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ph.yhb.org.il\/en\/01-24-01\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"01. The Mitzva of \u0124inukh, Educating One\u2019s Children - Peninei Halakha\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is a Torah commandment to teach Torah to children. Thus we read: \u201cTeach them to your children\u201d (Devarim 11:19). The primary objective of this teaching is to ensure that the children observe all the Torah\u2019s instructions: \u201cStudy them and be careful to do them\u201d (Devarim 5:1). 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