The Shema (7)
And you shall teach them diligently to your sons, and shall speak of them as you sit in your house, and as you walk in the way, and as you are lying down, and as you are rising up. Deuteronomy 6:7
Teach Diligently – The intensive form of the Hebrew verb shanan means “to teach incisively.” These words are intended to cut deeply into the hearts of our children. They are to be inscribed into their hearts (remember that means will, emotion, cognition and action) just as an engraver would inscribe words of love on a golden ring. If we knew the origin of the Hebrew verb shanan, we would see just how “pointed” this is to be, for the literal meaning of shanan is “to sharpen with a whet stone.” It is commonly used of sharpening the points of arrows in preparation for battle. When you teach your children the Word of YHWH, you will probably draw some blood. You will puncture some defenses. You will cut into resistance. If you don’t, you did nothing to sharpen your sons and daughters.
The pictograph of Shin–Nun–Nun is “double life teeth,” in other words, “what consumes or destroys applied twice.” Iron sharpens iron. Iron twice. Well, life sharpens life, especially when a life of Torah observance (the parents) is diligently applied to the life of the children. The purpose of such sharpening is to grind off the rough edges so that the arrow point has the most effective result. In life, this means that no activity escapes smoothing. Sit, walk, lie down, rise up – all transitional actions during the periods of the day are to be whet stones in the hands of parents for the education of children.
Sounds great until we reflect on our position as Torah-observant instructors. Then we realize that we aren’t communicating information. We are communicating consumption and destruction. I don’t teach my children how to get up, sit, lie down or walk. I teach them how I sit, walk, lie down and rise up according to God’s Word. I can’t give them user manuals or encyclopedias. I have to show them how I live. They have to copy me! I am the whet stone. I have to grind away some of my life in order to sharpen theirs. It takes friction to change behavior. It doesn’t happen by reading about it. You’ve got to grind a little to make a point.
In a world where information transfer is the equivalent of teaching, we are more likely to desire our children to pass the exam, to regurgitate useless facts and opinions, to adopt problem-solving techniques that have little or nothing to do with life’s real issues. We want them to have A’s in remembering what the world wants to cram into their available mental capacity. But we certainly don’t want them to copy us. We already know how lost we are, what failures haunt us, what pains we carry inside. We don’t want any of that for our sons and daughters. We want them to be successful. So, we don’t apply the whet stone. We don’t let our lives grind them into a finely honed weapon for God. We don’t want friction. As a result, we get rookies who are easily overwhelmed in battle.
To teach diligently is to press the point, to grind when it hurts both parent and child, to scrape off some of my life for the sake of my children’s life. How will my actions help sharpen them if my actions have not yet been ground to a fine arrow tip?
Topical Index: teach diligently, sharpen, education, Deuteronomy 6:7
So much for the mythical parent who tells the child to “Do as I say, not as I do.” This will never happen because the child will always do what the model has modeled. The parent will do as they believe. So the child does not have to listen to the words, but just observe the behavior. Now comes the praise leveled at preachers by his/her loyal congregants: Preacher, you have now stopped preaching and have begun to meddle. I guess my mission is to do more meddling.
Look for the soon to be posted audio series on Apologetics. It address a lot of these issues.
The other day my 12 year old son Sean said “Dad, now when I see the number 4, I think of the four letters of God’s name and when I see the number 3, I think of the the trinity.”
What was important to me was not his understanding of this information, he’s known this stuff for years, but that it was a signal to me that I’m not the “bad guy” in his eyes anymore.
So I followed up by reminding him how 3 is also fundamental to logic and the concept of the dialectic, which corresponds to three Hebrew letters, Aleph Mem Shin, and defines the following structure:
– thesis
– antithesis
– synthesis.
Speaking of Shin (fish), my daughter, son, and “wife” are all pisces.
Shin-Nun-Nun
Ooops, I meant Nun is fish, Shin is tooth 🙂
Hi Michael. I see from your comment that you have no problem in mentioning one of the signs of the stars: Pisces. Could you explain a little of HOW and WHAT this means to you in light of the scriptures?
‘Could you explain a little of HOW and WHAT this means to you in light of the scriptures?”
Hi Carol,
I did not mean to imply that astrology is supported in the scriptures.
In Isaiah 47, astrologers are denounced for their inability to save you.
The sharpened arrow tip pierces the heart of flesh of one that is willing to receive from YHVH’s Word. For someone that has a stoney heart it takes many arrow hits or glancing blows causing chips to flake off the stone to whittle it down and the wind (ruach) to erode it away.
Being single without children, I have to relate to this to myself and my upbringing first than to my siblings, nephews, nieces, other family members, friends, peers, and co workers, etc. How I walk (Halach) my life in view of many people and how I should be like the Messiah, being a pure light not mixing my words or my ways.
We all should be a unobstructed light not a obscurely muted light covered by our pride, Hippocratic lifestyles, disobedience, harlotries of out & out rebellion. It is time for us too really shine, walking in the truth of the Torah giving up the pagan celebrations no matter what the cost and protecting the Feast of YHVH, giving up the unbiblical diets, keeping / guarding the Sabbath being a peculiar people set apart and holy for our G-d. Lets not be like our forefathers in the wilderness, or the split kingdoms of Israel. Let’s be apart of YHVH’s restorative plan, bringing healing to our tribes so we can reach others that are in exile from the Truth of the Torah. Let’s be the whet stones bringing ourselves and others into the maturity of the faith/truth(emet), being finely honed weapons for Yah. Let’s get the FRICTION ON!
Excelente reflexión Pamela, excelente. Vivir en público lo que aprendemos en privado, esa es la cuestión. Abandonar nuestros viejos hábitos y tomar lo que dice la Torá, ese es el secreto del éxito en la vida del cristiano. Bendiciones.
It’s amazing how God uses people. I was doing research on Deuteronomy 6:4-9 in regards to parenting and and searching the words “whet and sharpen” when I found your blog. Thanks for the post!! The last paragraph really drives home exactly what I’m learning.