פרשת בחוקתי
This week’s Parsha opens with the verse, “If you will walk in my ways, and keep my statutes…” and goes on to say that we will merit in receiving every single blessing on God’s green earth. Rashi comments that there is more to “walking in my ways” than meets the eye. He says that this phrase cannot be referring to its apparent meaning of keeping the Mitzvos, because than the verse would be redundant, and is rather referring solely to our commandment to toil in Torah. And the second half of the verse is telling us that our toil in Torah should be strictly in order to know what the commandments are so that we can adequately fulfill them. The famous Mashgiach, R’ Aryeh Finkel says that the word Torah comes from the root “Hora’ah”, which means, instruction. The Torah is meant to literally guide us in how to live our lives and we are meant to consult it before we take any step, or negotiate any obstacle in life. Our Gemorah in Kidushin (40a) says, “Torah is great, because it brings a person to action.” The Mesillas Yesharim is based on the Braisa of R’ Pinchas Ben Yair which opens with the words, “Torah leads a person to watchfulness in keeping the Mitzvos etc.” So it comes out that the first verse in Bechukosai is teaching us that Torah must be studied with this intention, and only this type of study will lead to the great blessings mentioned in the ensuing verses.
In truth, we are preparing now for a great event which took place many years ago, but is celebrated as if it happens every year. At Mount Sinai, the Jews made a shocking declaration. They accepted the Torah from Hashem without even knowing what was in it. How could they have made such a rash decision? R’ Aryeh explains that their decision was to do exactly what we have discussed. They knew that Hashem would never give them any laws which they couldn’t handle, so in essence what they were saying to Hashem was, “Don’t tell us what it says in the Torah so that we can see if we can handle it, rather just give to us so that we know what to do!” In other words, the only reason they wanted to receive the Torah was so that they would know what Hashem wanted from them. It was a forgone conclusion to them that Hashem wouldn’t give them anything but straight and good laws, they just wanted to get to it already. Such is the way we must study Torah, with complete faith that every law in the Torah is ultimate truth, and in order to fulfill every detail properly. On a practical level, the Rishonim write that after each day of learning, a person should pause for a few minutes and analyze whether anything “Lemayseh” can be applied to his life from his learning.
In this week’s Parsha, we also read the horrifying curses that come upon a person who does not keep the Torah properly. The Gemorah in Megilah says in the name of R’ Shimon Ben Elazar that Ezra decreed that we must always read this portion of the curses before Shavuos so that we finish off that part of the year before the holiday with the curses, and can start the new year with every blessing. R’ Aryeh points out that based on what we have explained, this makes perfect sense. Since the whole point of receiving the Torah was in order to properly keep it, before Shavuos, we want to make sure that people are properly motivated in not deviating from the Torah’s precious statutes even slightly, so that they can start of the new year with tremendous blessing. A great way to ensure that is to scare the hell out of them… literally.
There is another aspect about learning with intent to fulfill which I would like to discuss. Until now, we have discussed the obvious aspect of learning in order to do what the words actually say, but there is a far more sublime feature in learning which can affect us practically and should not be ignored. When we learn the entire tractate of Zevachim, or Menachos, there is not much on the surface level which can be applied to our lives, but there is something beneath the surface of every word of Torah learned which uplifts us and carries us to new spiritual heights which we could have never reached without that particular piece of Torah in our repertoire. When we study any piece of Torah, and begin to recognize the unfathomable depth in every line of Gemorah, and behold how it works on so many different levels, this breathtaking beauty will undoubtedly fill us with a tremendous sense of how grand Hashem is, and will instill in our hearts a deep fear of Heaven and inner strength which will serve as a powerful aid in our motivation to keep His laws. This refinement of the soul is critical in the development of a Jew, and cannot be acquired without intense Torah study.
Around 200 years ago, there was a great Jew named R’ Yisrael Salanter. At the age of nine, he memorized the Shas with the express intention of being able to study in public places without appearing ostentatious in that he would no longer need the aid of book and no one would know that he was studying. As R’ Yisrael got older, he realized more and more that what his generation was lacking was fear of Heaven. Many of his peers were steeped in Torah, (at least on a surface level), but lacked the deep inner refinement which must be present in a Torah Scholar. So he introduced the concept of dedicating time to learning Mussar each day. Like all new movements, this one was met with extreme opposition from mainstream orthodox Judaism. They claimed that fear of Heaven could be culled solely from the primary sources. R’ Yisrael conceded that this was true for earlier generations, but insisted that the current generation was no longer capable of doing so. With this sentiment, he moved forward with his dream and founded what became referred to as the Mussar movement, which today, has been accepted by virtually every single Yeshiva, who have incorporated some sort of Mussar session in their curriculum. But regardless of whether one learns like R’ Yisrael, or those that disagreed with him, there was one point which everybody agreed upon, and that is the need for a Jew to build up his fear of Heaven through the Torah which will cause him to actively increase his service of Hashem.
The holy Mashgiach, R’ Chazkal Levinstein agreed enthusiastically with R’ Yisrael Salanter and would say that just as the Rishonim quoted earlier said that each Jew must pause at the end of his day, and contemplate what emerged from his learning which is relevant to his life, similarly when one hears a Mussar talk which affects him, he must take some time out to try and determine how those concepts expressed could help him in building himself spiritually, and how he can improve his service of Hashem based on what was said. Only by doing so will the Torah truly penetrate his heart. R’ Shalom Shvadron has a work called, “Kol Dodi Dofek” based on the verse in Shir Hashirim which means, “The voice of my beloved is calling.” This book is on the month of Elul, and it is dedicated solely to quoting different parts of Chazal which describe what will happen to a person who has had a spiritual awakening, but hasn’t acted on it on a practical level, and let that awakening die down into the abyss of all other forgotten dreams and ideas. It is truly a frightening book and is worth a reading, but for us, the message is clear. We must take the Mussar lessons we learn from the Gemorah and our Rabbeim to a practical level and allow them to strengthen our spiritual resolve so that we have the motivation needed to observe the Torah.
May we all merit to allow the Torah to practically affect our lives in every way!