Regarding the word “v’nitzaltem” “and you will empty out (Egypt)“, in Sefer Shemos (3:22), Rashi comments that the word “v’limadtem,” “and you will teach them“, which appears in our pasuk, is the piel form, intensive conjugation, of the word “lilmod,” to learn. Actually, the word that should be used to describe “teaching” should be the ‘hiphil,” causative form, of the verb. Hence, the Torah should have said, le’halmid, to make someone learn. This would be similar to the word, l’halbish, to dress someone. What is the reason for this change in the conjugation of the word?
Horav Yosef Berl, zl, infers a profound lesson from this. Teaching an individual Torah is an entirely different act than simply dressing him. It is not sufficient to merely impart knowledge to a pupil. It is necessary for one’s teaching be an intensification of one’s own learning. The rebbe’s Torah study should be so powerful that it overflows and reaches out to the talmidim. The rebbe’s metzuis, essence, pours out with love and enthusiasm for the Torah and the students.
This idea helps us to understand the sequence of the pasuk in Krias Shma: “And you shall teach them to your sons, and you shall speak in them.” It would make sense that one first acquire the Torah by studying it before he speaks words of Torah. Should not Torah learning precede Torah speaking? The Torah is teaching us that even after one has personally acquired Torah knowledge, in order to dissemninate this knowledge to others one should speak the Torah wherever he goes, when he sits down, when he travels. In this way, the Torah he teaches is the product of his own unremitting learning. This comprises the Torah’s idea of “continuing education.”
