We recently explained in the newsletter the precept of the Shema Yisrael (Hear, O Israel), a prayer recited twice a day, once at night and once in the morning. This prayer is composed of three paragraphs, two of which are found in the Torah in the last two parashot, Va'etchanan, from last week, and Ekev, from this week.
The Talmud discusses the general difference between these two paragraphs, where it can be seen that the order in which they are recited is related to their order of importance: in the first paragraph, the central theme is the acceptance of the heavenly yoke, in simple terms, that God is the one who commands, while in the second paragraph the central theme is the acceptance of the Divine precepts, the Mitzvot.
Despite this fundamental difference, the text of both paragraphs is very similar: both speak of love for God, the study of Torah, Tefillin, the Mezuzah, and the different times when the Shema should be recited.
We find the idea of Torah study in both passages, with slight differences. Deuteronomy 6:7 says, "And you shall teach them to your children and speak of them," and Deuteronomy 11:19 says, "And they shall teach them to their children, that they may speak of them." To the casual reader, these phrases are quite similar... but not to someone who analyzes them more closely.
Here the Torah is giving us fundamental teachings regarding daily life and values education. The first paragraph speaks of the person who must, on the one hand, teach Torah to their child and, on the other hand, speak about Torah.
In general, one of the tools for interpreting the Torah is deriving its opposite; that is, if the Torah says it will reward a good deed, it follows that it will not reward a bad deed. In our case, if the Torah tells us that we must speak words of Torah—that is, that our everyday conversation should be, or at least include, concepts and teachings from the Torah—it follows that we should not speak of other things. In the words of our sages, "'You shall speak of them,' and not of trivialities.".
In society, there are a number of expressions that vary depending on the time and place that are not good (bad words), some especially aggressive and derogatory. However, due to their repetition, they end up becoming part of people's normal vocabulary (which doesn't make them good), as our sages say regarding those who repeatedly transgress the Torah: they come to perceive that same transgression as something permitted, due to custom, which doesn't mean it ceases to be an action condemned by the Torah.
In addition, it's an interesting exercise to record at least the general ideas of the conversations (and even thoughts) that occur during a typical day. It's quite possible that, at the end of the day, when we review the list, we'll find many unimportant, truly secondary and trivial matters—a lot of "nonsense.".
The second paragraph tells parents that they must teach Torah to their children "so they can talk about it": to whom does this last phrase refer, the educator or the student? Who is the one who should "talk about it"? If we already told parents to talk about Torah, here the reference is to the children; the teaching by the parents should be such that the children talk about Torah, even in their daily lives.
Where does that education begin? With the parents. When parents' normal conversation is about "them" and not trivial matters, their children will also learn to "talk about them.".
True and profound education is example.