The Krias Shema, which according to Deorayta is the only learning of Torah we are commanded to perform on a daily basis, speaks a few times of raising our children. It lists the things we must do in our lifetime to act accordingly and adds parenting as one of them. As far as I'm corcerened, parenting is the most underrated mitzvah in the Torah. If carried out correctly, it could have such great effects on this world. On the other hand, if it is treated without care, it could possibly destroy so much, including our lineage. We are commanded to read these verses two times a day, yet we pay little attention to the gravity of the matter. Sometimes we focus to much on our lives and less on our children. But the Torah would not have listed this here, or anywhere if it wasn't important. Why isn't there a Chasidut which their prime focus is raising children? Sounds funny, but a good question. Raising children is a difficult task, and the fruits are not always visible, but it ensures permanent dwelling in the land, as promised to our forefathers.
After listing all the negatives that will happen ("For then the L-rd's wrath will flare up against you, and He will close the heavens so that there will be no rain and the earth will not yield its produce, and you will swiftly perish from the good land which the L-rd gives you) if we allow our hearts to lead us to idolatry, it gives us a way to make it right, and the reason we must do it ("place these words of Mine upon your heart and upon your soul, and bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for a reminder between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, to speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you rise. And you shall inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates - so that your days and the days of your children may be prolonged on the land which the L-rd swore to your fathers to give to them for as long as the heavens are above the earth"). In the middle of telling us how we ourselves must behave the Torah tells us that we must teach our children the Torah. Why is this listed as a mitzvah in this particular place? The reason is so that the nation of Israel can have an existence.
In the second paragraph of the krias shema, the order is as follows... first we must "put them our our hearts, and tie them as a sign on our arms and as totafos between our eyes". This verse implies that this is the manner in we must behave in out lives. Then in goes to tell us to "teach them to our sons so that they will speak them while we sit at our homes and walk on our way and as we lie down and awake, and you shall write them on the mezuzos of your homes and our you gates". Here it is shown that after we have become what the Torah wants, we must teach our sons the same thing. Good parenting is a commandment from the Torah. We are commanded by the Torah to teach our kids to be like the Torah intends. This is also logical, because as we go through life, we are ruined by the ways of the world and slowly we drift from the ways of the Torah. We must therefor continuously learn and strive to improve. Children are new souls that have just arrived at this world and do not yet have influence from it. A parent who is teaching the child by the Torah has a chance to escape the influence of the world for a brief time. But, most importantly we must teach for generations to come, never stopping. The next verse gives reason for why we must do all the above. "so that your days and sons days will increase on the land which Hashem swore to your forefathers to give them like the days of the heavens upon the earth". We are given not only motivation for raising our children, but also motivation for acting according to the mitzvot. There is also a hint of the following, the reason for everything we do is so that eventually it will all transfer to our kids. If we act according to the Torah, Hashem can fulfill his promise to the Avos and keep us in the land of Israel. To make a long story short, all the existence and survival of the Jewish people depends on bettering ourselves and raising our kids even better.
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