If there was ever a reason to keep on learning and not get distracted or walk away it’s the very famous line in the Mishnah that teaches us:
"All Jews have a portion in the World to Come.”
What greater line of encouragement can there possibly be, that we will all be OK in the end. But then you keep reading and discover the very opposite. There exists a class of people that “have no portion in the World to Come: One who says … the Torah is not from the heavens (ein Torah min ha-shamayim)."
What happened to the inclusive promise? It appears that rejecting certain key principles takes you out of the community. As Bnei Torah the idea of Torah min ha-shamayim, is familiar to us all on a superficial level. It is this that separates us from other groups claiming to have an authentic Jewish voice.
Rashi comments at the beginning of parashas Bereishis , that the word Shamayim means that Hashem “mixed together fire (esh) and water (mayim), forming from them the 'shamayim.'"
Metaphorically, the concept of Torah min HaShamayim suggests that the Torah also contains elements of fire and water. In parashas Yisro, we learn that the Torah was given at Har Sinai amidst fire. Whereas in Sefer Shoftim , in shiras Devorah we read:
"Hashem, when You emerged from Se'ir, when You marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, also the heavens dripped; also the clouds dripped water. The mountains melted from before the Lord, even Sinai, before the Lord God of Israel."
Water expresses naturalness as it is the most basic necessity for man and for all life. The “ruach Elokim” was “merachefes al pnei hamayim”. Before there was a world there was water. In contrast, fire expresses creativity, innovation, and dynamism. The discovery of fire is one of the most important revolutions in human history. Unlike water, which is to be found around us in nature, a person who needs fire must seek it, pursue it, work to create it.
Even though they are so different and represent different ideas they both share a common denominator: both of them serve to purify, and neither of them can become tamei.
Like water, the Torah too preceded the creation of the Earth. The Torah is primal and natural. The Zohar Hakodosh teaches us that Hashem "looked into the Torah and created the world."
On the other hand, like fire, Torah also has a creative, dynamic, developing dimension. The Gemoro in Chagiga compares the words of Torah to plants: "Just as this plant is fruitful and multiplies, so the words of Torah are fruitful and they multiply"
Both fire and water are capable of great destruction, but they are also able to build. In Bereishis we read of the creative power of water, giving life to fish and to the bird kingdom. In the next parasha, Noach, we read of the destruction by the Flood, annihilating all living things off the face of the earth. Fire, too, has tremendous potential for creating, building, and renewing, but it is also able to destroy, as in the case of Sedom and Amora, and – thousands of years later the Beis HaMikdosh.
The Torah, too, has the power to bring life into the world, but also to bring destruction, chas Veshalom, as the Gemara teaches (Yoma 72b):
"Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said: What is the meaning of the posuk that states, 'This is the Torah which Moshe placed (sam) before Bnei Yisrael…'? If a person is worthy, the Torah is the elixir (sam) of life for him; if he is not worthy, then for him it is a potion (sam) of death."
The difference between Torah that is an elixir of life and Torah that is a deadly poison depends on the attitude of the person who approaches it:
"Rabbi Bena'ah used to say: Anyone who engages in Torah for its own sake – his Torah is like an elixir of life for him, as it is written, 'It is a tree of life for those who grasp it…' But anyone who engages in Torah not for its own sake – the Torah becomes like a deadly poison for him, as it is written, 'Let My teaching drop (ya'arof) as rain' – and the term 'arifa' alludes to death." (The same verb can be used to mean breaking the neck.)
The Torah is capable of bringing a person to Kedusha, but everything depends on the proper approach. A person who does not approach Torah out of thirst and longing, with a desire to study Torah for its own sake, may be greatly endangered. But when a person adopts the proper approach, knowing and internalising the fact that the Torah is "our life and the length of our days," and that without it there can be no life, then it is truly an elixir of life for him.
Rashi gives two explanations:
1. You should not set aside times for Torah, but rather you should make it keva (permanent) the entire day.
2. Set yourself times to learn four or five chapters every day.
Rashi is focussing on an attitude towards Torah. Of course there are many activities that occupy our time, however we need to consider Torah our primary focus, that somehow, at least subliminally, Torah is part of our daily agenda.
How much a person will actually be able to learn depends upon their circumstances. In terms of attitude and commitment it is the framework through which one views life.
Good intentions are not sufficient and Rashi’s second interpretation provides a daily minimum. In order to give firmness to your commitment to Torah, you must set minimal designated times for learning.
Although we believe that "Echad ha-marbeh ve-echad ha-mamis” Whether one does much or little, what truly matters is that he should direct his heart to Heaven" this does not mean that it is immaterial whether you are marbeh or mam'is. To the contrary, it is very material, both as a reflection of what your values are, and as something which subsequently moulds and shapes those values.
Moving to the qualitativ
e level, a person is asked to make the Torah central to his life, and is not just somewhere on the periphery. In practical terms, the element of keva means that, minimally, one has certain designated time frames for study, such that his is not simply adventitious, but rather fundamental and inherent to his schedule. Furthermore, kevius means making Torah into one's framework and planning everything else around that, rather than planning everything else and sticking in a bit of Torah in the remaining space.
This is, of course, very demanding, and what is significant and striking about it is, that this demand is made of each and every Jew. One cannot allow his social setting to determine for him whether or not Torah has a place in his life. It must be clear that, wherever he ends up, Torah is a central value, a framework for his life, something which is inherent in his very being.
Comments