Parshas Bechukosai
At the beginning of this week’s parsha, Hashem promises great blessing to those who go in His statutes and observe His mitzvos. Rashi explains that the blessings depend on these two things, that we fulfill his mitzvos and “go” in His statutes, which he explains as meaning that we be ameil in Torah (toil to understand the Torah). If these conditions are met, the Torah goes on to promise: “I will give you rain in its time, and the land will give forth of its bounty…”
Many commentators ask, we have a principle: “S’char mitzva behai alma leika.” Meaning, the mitzvos are eternal and this world is not eternal; therefore, there is no such thing as receiving reward for mitzvos in this world. If so, how can Hashem promise material blessing to those who go in His ways? This sounds like a contradiction to the above rule!
The Rambam answers (Laws of Teshuva 9) that the bounty Hashem promises here is not reward but rather simply the means by which to do more mitzvos. This is a profound answer with important ramifications, but I would like to focus on a different answer:
The Chasam Sofer states that the material blessings promised in this week’s parsha are not reward for the actual mitzvos we do, but rather reward for the “ameilus,” the extra effort we put into study…. This answer fits well with Rashi’s commentary that “going” in Hashem’s statutes means being ameil in their study.
Only, why should ameilus be any different? Why should ameilus be rewarded in this world if all other elements of Torah observance are rewarded only in the World to Come?
Let’s first understand what ameilus, toiling in Torah, really means.
Rav Ahron Yehuda Leib Steinman says that ameilus in Torah study is an expression of our love for Hashem. When a person feels love, he is willing to do anything to express it. Diligent, devoted study of Torah is our way of expressing our love for Hashem. Moreover, diligent Torah study is also a way of building our love for Him. The more effort one puts into understanding the Torah, the more love of Torah he instills within himself. A well-accepted truism is that the more one invests in something, the more fondness he feels for it (Rashi, Bava Metzia 38).
The Sifri (Parshas Va’eschanan) demonstrates this idea in explaining the first words of Keriyas Shema: “And you shall love Hashem, your G-d.” How can one love Hashem? the Sifri asks, and replies that the answer can be found in the next verse, which speaks about Torah study: “And these words shall be on your hearts, and you shall teach them to your children and speak in them when sitting in your home and as you go on your way…” This shows that ameilus in Torah leads to love of Hashem.
The love that our ameilus engenders produces a commensurate love from Hashem that cannot wait until the Next World; just as we give Him an outpouring of love through our hasmada in learning, so too He, as it were, “cannot wait” and showers blessings upon us in kind.
Moreover, since the blessing promised in this parsha is Hashem’s response to our extraordinary efforts to get close to Him, He in turn gives us extraordinary blessings. This is why Rashi notes that the blessings in this week’s parsha have supernatural characteristics: “rain in its proper time” means rain will fall only at times when people are in their homes and not inconvenienced. “…and the tree of the field will give of its fruit” means that even non-fruit bearing trees will give forth fruit, and “and I will go with you” means we will walk with Hashem in Gan Eden! Clearly, when we make especial efforts, the response from Heaven is in kind, middah keneged middah.
Ameilus in Torah is expected to instill within us ahavas Torah. The Medrash provides an insight into how deep our ahavas Torah should be:
In Tehillim 119, Dovid states “I considered my ways and brought my feet back to Your statutes.” The Medrash states that Dovid said to Hashem: “Every day I set out to go to a certain place or certain house, but my feet would bring me to houses of prayer and houses of study…” (Vayikra Rabba 35:2)
Through constant, consistent toil in Torah, despite circumstances that surely were pushing Dovid to engage in other things, the result was that his love and yearning for Torah study became so deep-rooted that it became part of Dovid’s very instincts. Even if he set out to go elsewhere, his instinct to engage in Torah study would assert itself until he realized that whatever seemed a necessary reason to stop learning was in fact not a reason at all, and he would then head to the beis medrash.
Now, who of us does not, at times, have very good reasons for canceling a learning seder? How many of us feel unable to set aside more time for learning because we “need” certain things, and without them we would have no yishuv hadaas? But then again, who more than the king of Israel had valid reasons to devote time to matters of state, and yet Dovid seemed able to navigate his way each time to the beis medrash.
The message of this Medrash is that we all have to develop our ahavas Torah as did Dovid Hamelech. As we develop, we’ll find that a lot of our reasons for engaging in other activities are in fact not justified. Each of us at his own level must treat this matter with the utmost seriousness. The Gemara states openly (Brachos 5) that whoever is able to learn Torah but does not, afflictions come upon him.
At the end of our lives we will be asked if we were kove’a itim for Torah (Shabbos 31). The Gra explains (based on an obscure use of the word “kove’a” in Malachi 2:8) that the intent of this question is, did we steal time for Torah! Meaning, of course one must be strict in allotting time each day and night to Torah study, and utilizing this time in the most rigorous way possible, but the judgment that awaits us will go further: how much did it hurt? How valuable was Torah study to us that we were literally willing to break away from the current of life to get into a sugya, even for a short time? How much time did we pull ourselves away from our social gatherings, newspapers, comfortable beds, emails, etc., for another few minutes of deveikus in Hashem’s Torah? This, says the Gra, is the extent of the din we must give on Torah study — how great was our ahavas Torah!
Rav Yechezkel Abramsky would say that as a bachur, he only allowed two chasunos to take him away from his learning — his sister’s and his own!
May we be zoche to be ameil in Torah!