פרשת תרומה
This week’s Parsha opens with the commandment for every Jew to donate the materials necessary for the building of the Mishkan, which Hashem assured was going to be the place that His presence would rest until the Jews arrived in Israel and built the Holy Temple. The Midrash comments that the verse commanding this is a little off. The verse should have said, “And they will bring to me Terumah,” when it actually says, “And they will bring me as Teruma,” implying that somehow we bring Hashem as Terumah. The Midrash explains that by the work we do in serving Hashem with our Torah and our good deeds, which is best personified by the service performed in the Mishkan, it is considered that we have brought Hashem’s presence down to earth, and His presence rests with each one of His servants. The Midrash quotes the famous parable of a king who had only one daughter. When it came time to marry her off, the king told her groom, the perspective prince, “I cannot bear to have you take her away from me, as her presence means everything to me, on the other hand, I know that it is unrealistic of me to ask you to stay here with her, so instead, please make a small room in your house where I can visit any time and stay there so that I can always see my daughter.” Similarly, Hashem tells the Jewish people, “I gave you my most precious possession, the Holy Torah. It is difficult for me to be away from this treasure, so please build the Mishkan so that I can always have a place to dwell amongst you and have access to the apple of my eye.” For us, who no longer have the Mishkan, the way we build a place where Hashem can feel comfortable in dwelling is by properly studying His Torah and keeping His Mitzvos, and as the Midrash mentioned above, in this way Hashem can literally dwell among us.
R’ Aryeh Finkel, the famous Mashgiach of the Mir, asks an interesting question. What do these cryptic words in the Midrash mean when Hashem says, “I cannot bear to be away from the Torah,” and what is the Midrash trying to teach us with this statement. R’ Aryeh explains that the Midrash is imparting a very novel concept with this parable. The Midrash is teaching us that Torah is not like all other forms of wisdom. In every other science, a person is able to use his intellect alone to grasp it and its categories. However, Torah is different in that intellect alone is not enough, because the Torah does not work solely on an intellectual plane, and for this reason, Hashem himself has to remain attached to the Torah if we are to hope to understand it. This means that Hashem literally cannot leave His daughter, the Torah, with us, because it will be inaccessible to us in its pristine form without Hashem, and He therefore must remain attached to it so that we are able to fathom some of its depth and intricacies. It comes out that learning Torah itself is a divine, supernatural process during which each word of Torah learned is aided and abetted by Hashem Himself. The Taz, in the laws of Berachos, (S47) supports this Midrash by saying that when we make the daily blessings on the Torah, we do not say, “Blessed is Hashem who gave the Torah,” but rather, “Blessed is Hashem who is giving the Torah,” implying that Hashem is constantly giving the Torah to the people who are studying it. Based on what we have explained, this language is perfectly reasonable.
I once heard from R’ Moshe Shmuel Shapiro a beautiful explanation of the verse in the beginning of Shir Hashirim which says, “Hashem kisses me with his mouth.” Rashi points out that this kiss is a very intimate one. The verse could have said that Hashem kisses us on the hand, but instead refers to the most sensual kiss between a man and woman, a kiss from mouth to mouth. He explains that this is referring to each and every Jew who struggles to understand the Torah. After they have toiled sufficiently, Hashem extends himself downward, so to speak, and gives this Jew a kiss on the lips, which enables him to then go and understand the piece he is struggling with. Such is the level of involvement and intimacy Hashem offers to those who study His Torah.
The Yerushalmi, brought by Tosafos in Chagiga, tells a story about the famous Tanna Elisha ben Avuya, and how at his Bris, R’ Elazar and R’ Yehoshua attended. However, as opposed to partaking of the traditional feast, like the other onlookers, they decided to learn Torah. While they were learning, a ring of fire surrounded their heads, making quite a spectacle. Avuya asked them why they were trying to burn his house down. They responded in surprise, “Don’t you know what we are doing? We are learning Torah, and this happens every time we learn. Doesn’t this happen to you when you learn? Hashem gave the Torah at Sinai amidst lightning and fire, and we recreate this every time we learn!” We see from this Tosafos that every time we study Torah, we essentially are involved with Hashem directly, and ideally, we could be in the same state these Tanaim were when they learned.
Certainly for us, whose main stock is located in the study of Torah, it behooves us to inculcate these lessons deep into our hearts, and understand the special merit we have to be involved with Hashem literally on a daily basis. Perhaps we could offer some practical advice on how to do this. R’ Aryeh says that the first weapon in our arsenal is prayer. We need to pray to Hashem always that He give us the special aid necessary in understanding the depth of the Holy Torah. The Klausenberger Rebbe used to weep copiously when he would arrive at the second blessing before the Krias Shma in the morning, “Ahava Rabba.” He would think of the tremendous love involved with the fact that Hashem gave us the Torah, and concentrate intently on the heartfelt prayer contained therein for the success in Torah study. Whenever the Chazon Ish reached a difficult passage in his learning, he would stop and go over to the shelf containing the Siddurim and pray fervently until he felt that Hashem would help him. The other method I can offer comes from R’ Chazkal Levenstein. He would learn from the fact that the Midrash says that we must make a small room in our hearts where Hashem can dwell that we must always have a small place in us which is thinking about Hashem. In other words, no matter what we are involved with, it must always be ultimately for the purpose of bringing Torah into our lives, as the Mesilas Yesharim says, all the pleasures on this earth are only there in order to make the Torah and the Mitzvos possible.
I would just like to conclude with a true incident, which I personally verified with the grandchildren of the Chasam Sofer. The Nesivos Hamishpat, known for the name which his masterpiece is called, once came to visit the Chasam Sofer. When he was approaching the house, he heard the Chasam Sofer learning outside. He stayed at a bit of a distance, because he wanted to hear the Chasam Sofer’s method in learning, but he froze when he heard something very strange. The Chasam Sofer read the words, “Abaye says,” and then went on to repeat that phrase six times, and then said the word, “Welcome.” The Nesivos Hamishpat timidly approached him and asked him the meaning of these strange activities. The Chasam Sofer was clearly embarrassed that the Nesivos had heard him, and asked him not to tell anyone, but he explained, “For some time now, whenever I have trouble with my learning, I stop and I say the name of the figure in the Gemorah who I’m learning about, and shortly afterward, that Tanna or Amora appears to me and explains what he meant. Today however, something went wrong, and I had to repeat Abaye’s name six times before he actually appeared to me.”
May we all fully enjoy and delight in this special treasure Hashem entrusted us with!