Note: Bais HaMussar would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Rabbi Yitzchok Caplan for his many years of writing the weekly dvar Torah! We wish you much hatzlacha in all your endeavors! Henceforth, the dvar Torah will be written by Rabbi Yaakov Wolbe, Houston, TX.
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Those of us who were fortunate enough to spend time in a yeshiva invariably encountered a grave problem. The greatest mitzvah of all is the study of Torah and it is the sole occupant of a yeshiva curriculum. Students are expected to spend double-digit hours poring over Talmud, probing and pondering its depths. What happens when someone does not feel motivated or inspired to study? Worse, the study becomes cumbersome instead of novel, the Torah stale instead of enlightening. What can be done to ensure that Torah study is full of passion and zest?
Perhaps we can suggest a solution to this problem from our Parsha. Immediately prior to the outlining of the Blessings for those that uphold the Torah and Curses for those who reject it, we find a puzzling verse: "Moshe, the Kohanim the Levites spoke to all of Israel saying 'hearken and listen O Israel, on this day you became a nation for Hashem your God'." The Talmud (Brachos 63b), asks the obvious question. This statement was said forty years after the Exodus, and thus forty years after the formation of the nation. It would seem inaccurate to label that day as when the nation was founded. The Talmud answers that we should strive to maintain the same joy and vibrancy studying Torah every day as if it were the first day that we received it. There is some formula through which the inspiration and joy of Torah does not dissipate. When we approach Torah study today, it is possible to recapture what it would be like to study Torah at Sinai the very day Torah was given. Thus the verse's words "on this day you became a nation" can indeed be true 40 or even 3000 years after Sinai.
The Talmud reveals the secret formula with a surprising insight: For someone who studies Torah every day, the Torah is as fresh and beloved to him as the day it was given at Sinai. Daily, ongoing, committed action of engaging with Torah is the secret to assuring that the transcendental experience of Torah as it was given Sinai is perpetuated. The Talmud proceeds further by saying that if someone recites the Shema twice daily for years, but neglects to say it one day, it is as if he never said Shema in his life. This too follows the same principle that ironclad commitment makes what could be a daily ritual come to life. Someone who neglects the Shema for even a day displays a lack of commitment that reveals that even the preceding recitations were just that, recitations wholly devoid of meaning. The study of Torah when coupled with inflexible commitment will result in capturing the experience at Sinai with its unbridled joy. (This would also explain the verse's juxtaposition to the Blessings and Curses. The Blessings are a form of adding commitment to the relationship formed at Sinai. It is a deepening of the binds that connect us to Torah. It is thus apropos to teach us the insight of maintaining the newness of Torah immediately prior to showing how it is done.)
In a particularly dramatic and striking anecdotes found in Chazal, the Midrash describes a scene at the bris of Elisha Ben Avuya (later derogatorily dubbed "Acher", a great scholar who abandoned Torah). Present at the bris were the greatest men of Jerusalem, including Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua. Amid the festivities, Rabbi Eliezer said to Rabbi Yehoshua, "these are engaging in their craft, and these are engaging in theirs, let us engage in ours (let us study Torah)", and they proceeded to study Torah. The Midrash depicts the scene: The words of Torah were "as joyous as when they were given at Sinai, and a ring of fire enveloped them (as occurred at Sinai)." These great rabbis indeed succeeded in studying Torah as if they were present at Sinai, as the Talmud says is possible. And here too the secret formula for maintaining the degree of joy present at Sinai is outlined. The Torah was their craft. It was what they did. It was who they were. Each day that a heightened commitment to Torah is manifest, the experience mimics that of Sinai and thereby a fulfillment of "on this day you became a nation."
In the very first chapter of Alei Shur, my esteemed grandfather Rabbi Shlomo Wolbe זצוקללה"ה conveyed this insight. Torah study can and ought to be a pleasuresome, inspirational, and joyous experience. That is the way it was at Sinai, and we are exhorted to recapture it. But that demands commitment to study irrespective of desire or pleasure. With the investment of commitment, the pleasure and joy will invariably ensue.
Important Numbers
