The Pure

ב"ה

מפני מה מתחילין לתינוקות בתורת כהנים, ואין מתחילין בבראשית אלא שהתינוקות טהורין והקרבנות טהורין, יבואו טהורין 

ויתעסקו בטהורין (ויקרא רבה ז, ג)

WHY DO CHILDREN BEGIN THEIR LEARNING WITH TORAS KOHANIM ( VAYIKRA) AND NOT WITH BEREISHIS? SINCE THE CHILDREN ARE PURE AND THE SACRIFICES ARE PURE, LET THE PURE COME AND DEAL WITH THE PURE. (VAYIKRA RABBAH 7:3)

The Pure

Even before children are old enough to understand what it means to observe the Torah, their first studies of Jewish texts begin with the book of Vayikra. According to the Midrash, this is because Vayikra teaches the laws of sacrifices, and, “Since the children are pure and the sacrifices are pure, let the pure come and deal with the pure.”

Remarkably, the only reference in the Torah to sacrifices being “pure” is with regard to those offered by Noach after the flood: “And Noach built an altar to G-d, and he took of all the pure animals and of all the pure fowl and brought up burnt offerings on the altar” (Bereishis 8:20). The pure animals referred to there are the kosher animals, “Which are destined to be pure for Israel” (Rashi on Bereishis 7:2).

Noach’s sacrifices predated not only G-d’s command to the Jewish people “to distinguish between the impure and the pure” and observe a kosher diet (Vayikra 11:47), but also the patriarchs, of whom our sages say, “They observed the entire Torah even before it was given” (Kiddushin 82a). Thus, by referring to the sacrifices as “the pure,” the Midrash alludes to the potential of the sacrifices to reveal G-d’s essential love for the Jewish people, a bond that “predates” and transcends even the attachment we develop by observing His Torah.

Accordingly, we can understand the tradition to introduce children to Torah study with the book of Vayikra. Children begin their school years long before they are of the age of responsibility to observe the Torah and mitzvos. Moreover, at that age they are too young even to digest the idea of duty and obligation, or to be trained for the duties that they will have upon reaching the age of majority. Their early reading of the Torah therefore symbolizes a Jew’s inherent connection to G-d and His Torah that transcends even the observance and actual study of the Torah and its laws. Since the sacrifices likewise reflect this pure relationship with G-d, it is most appropriate that, “The pure come and deal with the pure.”

—Likutei Sichos, vol. 22, pp.