פרשת בלק
This week’s Parsha opens with the king of the Moabites, Balak, facing a terrible dilemma. He knows that the Jews want to pass through his land, and so far, they have been successful in destroying everything in their path. In a desperate attempt at self-defense, Balak hires Bilam to curse the Jews so that they would lose favor in Hashem’s eyes, thereby becoming vulnerable to a military advance on Balak’s part. As the Parsha unfolds, we find that Bilam’s three attempts to verbally attack the Jews fail miserably due to Hashem foiling his plans and forcing blessings to come out of his mouth instead of curses, and the Jews in fact received the tremendously eloquent blessings that Bilam was forced to utter. Among the blessings that Bilam pronounced, is the following verse – “Hashem overlooks the iniquity of Jacob, and fails to see the toil of Israel.” Rashi explains this verse simply to mean that Hashem chooses to overlook the bad deeds we perform because He knows that they are merely external, and that deep down, we always want to do the right thing. The Ohr Hachaim focuses on the latter half of the verse, “Hashem doesn’t see the toil of Israel,” and he explains it in a very interesting way. He says that this is referring to the quality of the Jewish people that even though they are exhausted, both physically and emotionally at the end of the day, when they study Torah, they do it with such delight that their fatigue is not evident in any way. We see from this prophetic statement of Bilam, that one of the defining qualities of a Jew, is his ability to study Torah with joy and enchantment, such that when he is observed from outside, it will appear to anyone watching him that he is involved with some activity which is thoroughly amusing and pleasurable.
In the famous work written by the Igle Tal on the laws of Shabbos, he writes in the introduction that he witnessed the desecration of Shabbos twice in his life. Had he seen a third instance, he would have been incapable of publishing his masterpiece. Then he goes on to say how the primary commandment to learn Torah is not merely to study the concepts, but rather to derive enjoyment from them. In other words, if somebody studies Torah joylessly, its not like he is missing a small detail in the Torah, but will still get credit for the study he has done – rather he has missed the whole point!
This idea is demonstrated as well in the blessings on the Torah we make every day. Sandwiched in the middle of the blessing thanking Hashem for commanding us in Torah study, we say, “May it be your will Hashem that the Torah is sweet in our mouths, and the mouths of our offspring,” and then we conclude the blessing. We do not make this request for any other Mitzvah in the Torah. We don’t ask Hashem to make the Shofar sweet in our mouths, or the Lulav. This request is exclusive to Torah study. The Tanna D’bei Eliyahu (18) goes so far as to say that Hashem will only have mercy on us and allow us to comprehend the Torah if we derive pleasure from the Torah! In any event, it is evident from the way our masters set up this blessing that they understood this point with crystal clarity. That sweetness in Torah is not an external factor, or a bonus, but rather is implicit in the commandment to study Torah.
Why? Why is delight in Torah study to integral to this commandment specifically? R’ Yitzchak Hutner, the famous Rosh Yeshiva of Chaim Berlin and philosopher extraordinaire writes in his book (Shavuos 15:6) that just as the eyes are only capable of sensing light, and the ears can perceive only sound waves and nothing else, the brain too has its frequency that it perceives and this frequency is pleasure. If something is not pleasurable, the brain can neither process it, nor remember it. This is the way Hashem built us. For this reason, Chazal say (Avoda Zara 19a) “A person should not learn a topic unless his heart desires that topic.” It is futile. Whereas when we study something that we truly enjoy, we will be able to process it and remember it forever because it is dear to us.
R’ Shimshon Pincus used to offer another possibility. The verse says that Torah is a covenant between the Jewish people and Hashem. Being that a covenant is an agreement of mutual love between two parties, if that love is missing, the treaty breaks down. The Torah is so deep and so vast, that Hashem’s giving it to us represents the limitless affection He feels for us. The greatest affront we can perpetrate is by either neglecting to receive that gift (i.e. not studying Torah), or studying it half-heartedly with no enthusiasm. Imagine a man of meager means goes to the jewelry store, and spends his hard earned money buying the most elegant diamond necklace for his beloved wife. When she gets home, he eagerly pulls out this exquisite sparkly display and presents it to her. Imagine how he would feel if she takes a brief look at it, and then throws it on the shelf with her other trinkets, or perhaps worse, she puts it on, but makes a dour face every time she sees herself with it on. How many more necklaces would you think that husband would buy for his wife? Similarly, when we study Torah with enthusiasm, we are likely to be eligible for greater understanding in Torah, because we are successfully keeping up our end of the covenant between us and our creator.
However, R’ Shimshon is not oblivious to the challenge this commandment represents. Every other Mitzvah in the Torah has a limited domain. For example we need to sit in a Succah for seven days a year, and that is all. There is no extra credit for sitting in a Succah in the middle of December. Or we eat Matzah on the 15th of Nissan and that is all. For these short times, it is reasonable to expect a person to build up a certain level of enthusiasm. But the commandment to study Torah is incessant. The Mishan in Avos says that if a person is traveling and studying Torah, and pauses to comment at how nice the surroundings are, he is liable to die! How can one generate that level of eagerness forever without burning out? R’ Shimshon answers that this is where the love comes in. One needs to engender a powerful love for the Torah and the one who gave the Torah if he hopes to reach this level we are referring to. I would like to offer a few practical suggestions how to reach this love.
Firstly, it can come through contemplation. When a person stops to consider the fact that every word of Torah is like a precious stone in that it represents the awesome and infinite knowledge of Hashem, he will certainly be enthused to continue learning with passion. Who wouldn’t want to collect more infinite knowledge? Secondly, we can utilize the suggestion of R’ Chaim Velozin. R’ Chaim would quote the Gemorah in Berachos (40a) which says that Hashem is not like us. In our world when a cup cannot hold anymore, it begins to spill. For Hashem, the more he holds, the more He is capable of holding. Similarly, we think that when we reach a certain amount, our brains will pop, but this is not the case. The more of ‘Hashem’ we have inculcated into our brains, the more we are capable of holding and the more we will enjoy it. So ironically, the way not to get ‘burned out’ from the Torah, is by learning more Torah! And finally, the most practical and honest suggestion I can give is prayer. Hashem is ultimately responsible for everything in this world, and for every neuron and synapse in our brains, and for every emotion we feel. If we hope to get a deeper feeling of glee in the Torah, we need to humbly pray with great devotion and sincerity that the Master of the entire universe grant us that feeling of ecstasy while studying the Torah, and that we don’t, God forbid, fall into the trap of despair and monotony, the two greatest enemies of Torah study.
May we all merit to delight in Hashem’s Torah with great jubilation!