In his Taam V’Daas, Horav Moshe Shternbach, Shlita, quotes a powerful observation from Horav Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, zl. Chazal teach that anyone who recites Krias Shema while not wearing Tefillin is considered as if he is offering false testimony. The parsha of Krias Shema includes the pasuk U’keshartem l’os al yadecha v’hayu l’totafos bein einecha, “Bind them as a sign upon your arm and let them be as ornaments between your eyes” (Devarim 6:8). How can one recite the mitzvah of wearing Tefillin when he himself is not wearing them?
Accordingly, one who does not educate his children in the derech Yisrael sabba, approved traditional manner, which has been integral to the Jewish people since time immemorial, is, likewise, testifying falsely. How can he say the phrase, “You shall teach them thoroughly to your children,” when, in fact, he does not?
It is a compelling observation, but one which apparently does not seem to shake anybody up. We live in a society in which parents believe they know what’s best for their children. The education which they choose for them does not have to conform to tradition. It must conform to the parents’ comfort zone. If the parent feels the education their child receives might cramp their own style of religious observance, they will nix that school. If it is not sufficiently progressive for their line of thinking, they will seek one that is. I really wonder if such parents bother to concentrate on the words of Krias Shema – unless they feel that it, too, is outdated.
