פרשת תרומה
This week’s Parsha opens with the verse “And you shall take Terumah for Me”. The purpose of taking this Terumah was in order to construct the Mishkan and the purpose of the Mishkan was to store the Holy Torah Scroll and the tablets of the Ten Commandments. There is an interesting Midrash on this verse which explains the tremendous benefits of learning Torah since the whole purpose of the Mishkan which the Jewish people constructed was to store the Torah. The Midrash says that the Torah that we acquired was a fantastic deal. Normally when one purchases something, he either gets gold for it, or silver, but rarely both. On the other hand, the Torah contains gold, silver, fields and orchards. Furthermore, as a package deal, God agreed to “come along” with the sale and be acquired to anyone who agrees to acquire the Torah. The Midrash compares this to a king who has an only daughter. When she comes of age, and he must wed her to another king, he tells his new son in law that although he must marry her off, he is not willing to part with her, so he instructs his son in law to build a small annex on to his house so that he can stay with them at all times. Similarly, the Midrash concludes, Hashem is unwilling to be without His only “daughter” – the Torah, so even though He gave it to us, we must construct the Mishkan so that He can be with us and Her at all times.
This Midrash obviously requires some explanation. The Shem Mishmuel offers a powerful explanation which encompasses every aspect of the Midrash. He begins by explaining that since the Torah is the blueprint for the world, by definition everything good in this world exists, and is indeed sourced in the Torah. The Midrash said that God comes along with the “sale”. The Shem Mishmuel explains that this means that since God and His Torah are one, by definition a person who acquires the Torah, actually internalizes a part of God into his very being. This is also what the Midrash meant when it said that God was unwilling to part with his only daughter. Meaning to say that an integral part of the Torah, is that it has an aspect of Godliness in it that has the power to affect and change a human being. If God were to “depart” from any aspect of the Torah, it wouldn’t be Torah, and would merely be one of the “other” wisdoms such as math or science which definitely have insight but lack Godliness. He continues to explain the Midrash which compared the Torah to our wives. This means that just as a person is only complete when he has a wife, similarly the Torah completes us as human beings. This is because man’s nature always leans toward evil tendencies and his physical pull is quite strong. Only with the Torah properly integrated in a person’s life can he hope to fight this strong pull downward and complete himself. This is why God suggests that we “make him a small room” in our hearts where he can dwell constantly. The way to do this is to keep one’s passions at bay so that the Torah can successfully enter ones heart to influence us and change us into good and holy human beings. This is the Shem Mishmuel’s masterful explanation of this Midrash.
Truthfully, this powerful idea that the Torah that one learns allows us to cling and to emulate God can be found in commentaries as early as the Bach. The Bach says that when a person learns about, and practices, the 613 commandments, he affects each one of the 613 bones and vessels that are found in the body. He does this by bringing God down into the world, and into his own heart. However warns the Bach, this positive effect will only be enjoyed by those who study and keep the Torah out of a love and reverence of God. Those who study the Torah just to sound intelligent or to stimulate their minds will certainly not benefit from the Torah, and fact will cause God’s presence to leave the earth and bring terrible destruction upon the world.
One should be deeply inspired by all that we have written when one sees the tremendous impact that the Torah can have on our daily lives and the kind of human beings that we can become by merely allowing God into our hearts. When one learns the Torah properly, one literally brings the presence of God down onto this earth and will automatically become a more moral and upstanding human being. This message is particularly pertinent during the month of Adar that we find ourselves in presently. Chazal teach us that at Mt. Sinai, the Jews accepted the Torah out of fear, as we explained last week. But Purim was the time that the Jews re-accepted the Torah out of love and excitement. There is no more appropriate time then now to stop and truly appreciate the exquisite opportunity God gave us by giving us the Torah and all of its statutes.
The Gemorah in Megillah quotes the famous verse, “And the Jews had light, happiness, joy, and honor. The Gemorah explains that “light” is referring to Torah, “happiness” is referring to the Yom Tov “joy” is referring to the commandment of circumcision, and “honor” is referring to Tefillin. The Sefas Emes asks an interesting question on this Gemorah. Why didn’t the Megillah just say, the Jews had Torah, Yom Tov, etc. Why did the Megillah use mystical terms? He answers by saying that the Megillah purposely used these terms to teach us that it was specifically because of the Jews recognition of the power of each of these Mitzvos that they were worthy of being redeemed. We too must take example from our brethren of yester yore and truly realize the tremendous power and light of the Torah.
May we merit to learn and practice the Torah and enjoy all of its fruits!