Q&A: The Breath of the Mouths of Schoolchildren
The Breath of the Mouths of Schoolchildren
Question
Hello Rabbi,
We assume that children’s observance of commandments and Torah study have no independent significance of their own. Their only significance is that through them the father fulfills the commandment of education incumbent upon him. Only after they reach the age of commandments do the commandments acquire independent content. The Talmud says that the world endures only because of the breath of the mouths of schoolchildren (Shabbat 119b). But according to what we claimed, the Torah study of schoolchildren has no independent significance, but only serves as fulfillment of the commandment of education incumbent upon the father. So what significance does the Talmud attribute to the breath of the mouths of schoolchildren?
The question is not in the mystical sense but in the logical sense. If it has no independent significance, then what benefit can be derived from it?
I thought perhaps to say, following the discussion about a bar mitzvah during the counting of the Omer, where they argue that he continues counting with a blessing because the counting before the bar mitzvah completes the counting after the bar mitzvah, that Torah study before becoming obligated in commandments is also considered fulfillment of the commandment of Torah study after becoming obligated, since it prepares the basis for study after becoming obligated. That is, Torah study before becoming obligated in commandments has value, except that becoming obligated in commandments is what reveals the value within the commandment.
A second possibility I thought of, based on the warning that adults are enjoined regarding minors in matters of eating prohibitions (which is not only by virtue of education), is that the value of minors’ Torah study is not only because of the commandment on the father, but also because of setting reality right in its proper form. The proper reality for children is that they do not eat forbidden carcasses and that they study Torah. It is not only because of the commandment on the father to prepare them for observance of commandments, but also because of setting reality right in and of itself.
Could the Rabbi please help us?
Answer
I didn’t understand where this assumption comes from. Clearly children’s Torah study has value. It is not a commandment, but even among adults the study is not really a commandment either (at least according to some of the medieval authorities (Rishonim)). Torah study is something more fundamental than a commandment, and therefore the Torah did not command it. By the way, this study has value and an obligation (not a halakhic one) for women just as much as for men. Women are exempt from the commandment, not from the value.
See my article in Tzohar:
https://mikyab.net/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D/%D7%9E%D7%91%D7%98-%D7%A2%D7%9C-%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%93-%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%9C%D7%A0%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%93%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%A0%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%AA
By the way, fulfillment of commandments by minors by virtue of education is not necessarily an obligation only on the parents. Rashi and Tosafot disagree about this in Berakhot and Megillah. According to Rashi, this is an obligation on the minor himself. See Kehillot Yaakov, Sukkah, sec. 2. I once explained the two laws that appear there in Kehillot Yaakov by saying that the fulfillment is done by the minor, while the responsibility for that fulfillment is placed on the parents.
I do not see a connection to the question of counting in the case of a minor who came of age. There is no issue here of “wholeness.”
Thank you very much.
The Torah too is described as “the Torah of the Lord is perfect.” And logically, things accumulate, like the story told about the Kotzker, who showed honor to his first teacher in the children’s school who taught him the letters, and explained that no one had ever disagreed about that. The Torah studied after bar mitzvah is not a blank page. It rests on what was learned before, and it is impossible to detach the two from one another. Therefore, even if at the time there was no commandment, one could say that retroactively, after bar mitzvah, there is a commandment here.
And that is of course in addition to all the other foundations the Rabbi added.