Torah Study Requires Exertion

By Rabbi Moshe Krieger, Yeshivas Bircas HaTorah (www.bircas.org)

In Parashas Bechukosai we are promised blessings if we keep the Torah and frightening consequences if we don’t. Rashi explains that the opening verse, “If you will walk with My laws,” refers to toil in Torah. Seemingly, toil in Torah is one of the great pillars of Jewish life, and a key to meriting Hashem’s blessings. Later in the parashah, Rashi notes that not toiling in Torah can lead to the nation’s destruction. This seems somewhat extreme. Why is toil in Torah so critical to Hashem’s relationship with us? What’s wrong with studying Torah without exertion?

Rav Yerucham Levovitz says that without toil, we are not learning Torah. Acquiring Torah requires a tremendous investment of self. The Yalkut Shimoni (Yisro 273 ) says that we can only retain the Torah that we learn if we exert ourselves as much as possible. The Gemara (Gittin 57b) even says that the only way to have a lasting connection to Torah is to “kill” ourselves over it!

Why is Torah study different than the study of other wisdoms? Rav Yerucham infers an answer from a gemara in Megillah (6b) referring to learning as “a find.” When finding a lost object, there is actually no relationship between any exertion applied and finding it. Here too, toil in Torah does not naturally produce an acquisition of it, because Torah is too spiritual for this world. The only way that we can grasp it is if Hashem grants it to us as a gift. We need Him to reveal the Torah’s truth to us. He is waiting for us to exert ourselves, and then He will be willing to grant Torah to us.

We can go even deeper. Hashem granted us Torah for the purpose of toiling in it. This is the way He desired it to be studied. Indeed, the Sifra (Bechukosai 1:1) says that Hashem anticipates our toil in Torah. Exertion in Torah learning is an end onto itself! Rav Yisrael Salanter (Ohr Yisrael  8) writes that an astute learner who acquires knowledge quickly is no greater than one who toils mightily just to understand the basics. In fact, Hashem loves the one who has to work harder, because he is always toiling in Torah when he learns.

The rosh yeshivah of Kamenitz, Rav Baruch Ber Leibowitz, was once learning with a group. They posed a difficult question on the gemara, which was soon discovered to be a question asked by Rabi Akiva Eiger. On the spot, Rav Baruch Ber came up with an ingenious solution. Then he paused and said, “No, I can’t solve a difficulty of Rabi Akiva Eiger’s this casually.”

He paced up and down the aisle for three hours, pondering a solution. When he returned to them, he proposed the same solution. “The ‘first’ solution wasn’t the Torah that Hashem wanted,” Rav Baruch Ber explained. “After three hours of work, I can finally be certain that this is true Torah.”

There are two lessons that we can learn from this story: Firstly, Rav Baruch Ber was a genius, and he had grasped the solution immediately, but he knew that only the toil was important. We see that those who are brilliant are not excused from toil. They too must find ways to exert themselves in Torah.

Secondly, though we may lack the brilliance he had (or didn’t discover it yet), we still possess what we need—the ability to toil in Torah at our level. This is all that Hashem wants of us!

A student once asked Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz how he could master all of Shas. “Who decided that you should master Shas?” Rav Chaim retorted. “Shas tells us what we’re supposed to do: we’re supposed to ‘kill ourselves’ in learning it.”

May we be zocheh to toil in Torah always!

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