Personal Learning and Following the Leader

אל תעלו כי אין ה' בקרבכם וכו' - במדבר יד, מב

ויעפלו לעלות אל ראש ההר וארון ברית ה' ומשה לא משו מקרב המחנה - שם מד

"Do not ascend for Hashem is not in your midst..." (Bamidbar 14:42)

"And they defiantly ascended to the mountain top, [but] the Ark of Hashem's Covenant and Moshe did not move from the camp." (ibid. 14:44)

The Rebbe, shlit"a, asked: If Moshe already assured Klal Yisroel that Hashem was not in their midst and would not come to their aid in their forced ascent to Eretz Yisroel, isn't it obvious that the Aron and Moshe Rabeinu did not go with them?

Learning Torah - For Everyone?

Last week, the Rebbe mentioned the idea that, for a certain person, the Torah will only make his bad middos and taavos worse. (See here about the zav and zavah.)

It seemed to me that in the Yeshiva world, the general consensus is to just learn Torah anyways, even if the person is "tamei", as the Torah has a cleansing quality which over time will right whatever malevolent roots are in the person. Torah can and should be learned by anyone to purify the mind and steer the heart back to Hashem.

In Chassidus, while that idea is definitely spoken about, it seems that there is a much greater emphasis on the preparation that must take place in order to be worthy, so to speak, of learning Torah. As the Rebbe quoted Chazal (Yoma 72b), "If the person merits, the Torah becomes for him like an elixir of life. If he does not merit, the Torah is like a fatal poison."

Birchas HaTorah

In yesterday's piece, the Rebbe mentioned the implications of neglecting to recite Birchas Hatorah:

"Every morning we say the berachos for the privilege and the honor of studying the Torah which G-d has given us. We recognize G-d's authorship of the Torah and that it is a Divine gift, that it emanates and is derived from the Divine and Infinite Being and we thank G-d that we have an attachment to Torah. We thank Him for the privilege of studying Torah." See the rest here.

I thought it was a good idea to take a look at what the Baal Hatanya writes in his Shulchan Aruch and see how it complements the Rebbe's remarks. In The Laws of Birchas Hatorah (Siman 47), he writes:

"One must be exceedingly careful about the blessings of the Torah, for the Land [of Israel] was destroyed for no reason other than its omission, since [the Torah] was not significant enough in their eyes that they should make a blessing before it. It was for this reason that their Torah learning did not protect them - even though they learned and dealt in Torah a lot. Therefore, every person should see to it that the vessel of Hashem's grace that He took pleasure in every day be significant one's eyes enough to make the berachah with more simcha than all the pleasures of the world. [Making the berachah in this fashion] is indicative that his learning is lishmah."

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Purim: Revealing the Hiddeness

Among the many peculiarities of Purim, one that definitely deserves mention, is the mitzvah to read the Megilah. The reason we read the Megilah is to broadcast and publicize the miracle of Hashem’s intervention in the Purim story. Yet, throughout the entire Megilah, G-d’s Name is mentioned all but never. We seem to be caught somewhere between revealing and concealing...

What Simcha Can Achieve

A scene from present-day Mezritch.

Yesterday between Mincha and Maariv, the Rebbe told the following story:

The Baal Hatanya once wrote a letter to Reb Zish of Anipoli, addressing him as "HaGaon", meaning the "Torah genius". The Baal Hatanya's chassidim wondered: While Reb Zisha was a great tzadik and servant of the Almighty, he was hardly known for his great genius in learning. In fact, Reb Zisha rarely said divrei Torah at all. Why would the Baal Hatanya write a title like that regarding Reb Zisha?

Rebbe Quotes: Approach to Learning

"If I could - if it weren't embarrassing - I would kiss every letter. I would take the Torah and I would hug it and I would dance with it every second. Your approach [when you sit down to learn] should be: 'I'm absorbing Elokus (G-dliness). I'm drinking in ratzon haborei (the Will of the Creator). It's becoming part of the cells of my mind. It's becoming part of every cell in my body.' If we sat down with that kind of an attitude our learning would be different. It would be with more of a geshmak, it would be with a hislahavus, it would be with a simcha! Who could compare to us when we are sitting and learning, finding out more information about [Hashem's Will]. Not only at the time are we absorbing Elokus and we are absorbing the Chochmas Hashem and the Ratzon Hashem, and its becoming part of everything that nurtures us, but its also informing us about the many different ways in which we can serve the Hakadosh Baruch Hu - even in commonplace, everyday things."

--direct quote from the Rebbe, shlit"a (from the "Most Important Shiur 4/4")

Rebbe Quotes: Preparation For Learning Torah

"If we have an hour to learn, after all of our preparations maybe we will only have a half-hour to learn. But at least for that half-hour we'll be learning Torah. It takes time to make yourself a k'li (vessel) for Torah."

-- the Rebbe, shlit"a (from "The Most Important Shiur 4/4")

Most Important Shiur 4/4

We have arrived at the fourth of what the Rebbe called "the most important shiurim I have given". See here for the first, second and third, in this mini-series.

Unlike the first three, this shiur was given after Succos. Hence, it does not have any connection to the Yomim Tovim and is solely devoted to avodah in the "rest-of-the-year" kind of way.

A seemingly simple question was posed: "What is the proper way to learn Gemara?" and in the Rebbe's inimitable and endearing style, he used this basic query to jump-start a shiur about the fundamentals of personal avodah in general, as well as the some principles about limud haTorah specifically.

The Rebbe dispels many of the common attitudes we have about learning Torah and replaces them with a rich, exciting and attainable approach to the most basic and fundamental mitzvah we have been given: learning Torah. We are meant to spend as much time as we possibly can fulfilling the mitzvah of Talmud Torah. It takes precedence over pretty much anything else. Yet, many, if not all, of the ideas contained in this shiur are lost on most people.

Additional note: It was this shiur which prompted the Rebbe to exclaim that these were the most important shiurim. Also, the Rebbe speaks about the need to recalculate our approach to learning often, and here we finally have an entire 30 minutes exclusively on that topic.

Most Important Shiur 2/4

As mentioned previously here, the Rebbe labeled four specific shiurim as the most important shiurim he has given (his own words). They are each on a different topic, not connected to the others, and each contains many themes and practical applications for implementing the lessons taught. While much of these shiurim is devoted to explaining various themes of the Yomim Tovim, they avodah that the Rebbe speak about are clearly for all-year around and always timely.

These shiurim have been posted upon the express request of the Rebbe, shlit"a.

Medrash: 17th of Tamuz 5771

Today's Medrash Shiur was about the five things that are recorded as having occurred on the 17th of Tamuz. Interestingly, the Sin of the Golden Calf is not listed even though it too took place on the same day. The Rebbe expounded on the numerous levels of unity (achdus), and set forth the appropriate level of unity that is characteristic of Yidden. The Rebbe also said over how these ideas translate into practical service in Torah learning, davening and ahavas Yisroel.

DOWNLOAD - 45 minutes, 10.36 MB

Medrash: B'chukosai 5771

Here is the exceptional medrash shiur from this week, the night recording. The Rebbe touched on various topics in avodas Hashem, varying from Lag Baomer to fighting evil, from what mindset to have when sitting down to learn, to connecting oneself with all of Klal Yisroel before davening.

40 minutes, 9.8 MB PLAY DOWNLOAD

Shabbos Shira 5771

At tisch, the Rebbe spoke about the utmost importance of learning Torah in the right way. Namely, not as an intellectual exercise but as a means of connecting with Hashem. He quoted Chazal saying דרך ארץ קדמה לתורה, Derech eretz precedes Torah, and mentioned that "derech eretz" has the same numerical value as "Tefila" (485). Before we sit down to learn, we must first daven and ask Hashem for help that our learning should be that sort of experience that we are connecting to him.

The Rebbe pointed out that if a person approaches limud haTorah with the understanding that Hashem and his wisdom are one, they cannot be separated, and he appreciates that he is connecting with Hashem Himself for אורייתא וקודשא בריך הוא חד, then it won't matter to him if he is learning something that is relevant to him (like Hilchos Shabbos etc) or if he is learning Zvachim and Menachos which doesn't really have any practical application in our times. Lack of clarity will be intolerable whether it is in something l'maaseh or not since the entire Torah is the expression of the will of Hashem and it is all has equal connective capabilities.

The Rebbe related that sometime in the 60's, someone came to Milwaukee from a certain yeshiva on the East Coast to fund-raise for his yeshiva. He was set up to meet a well-to-do individual named Luck (or Gluck ?) who had once learned in Baranovitch but years later was no longer Shomer Shabbos. When asked if he knew Reb Baruch Ber, the reply was, "Er is gevein a malach Elokim mamash!" The gvir told over how he had traveled a great distance to come to the yeshiva and he arrived in the evening. Inasmuch as there was no place for him to sleep, he made his way to the Beis Medrash and lay down on a bench. At three in the morning, he was awakened by the sound of the doors opening. Not wanting to betray his presence, he made not a sound, but watched as someone made his way to the front of the shul. The man opened the Aron Kodesh and began weeping hysterically, crying out: "Tatte! Tatte! Ich farshtei nisht dem Tosfos! Oy! Tatte!" This went on for the better part of an hour. The next morning by davening, the bochur saw the same man sitting on the mizrach vant and realized that it had been none other than the famed Rosh Yeshiva, Reb Baruch Ber.

This was someone who cared so much about the Ribono shel Olam's Torah; he cried and cried for an hour because he couldn't live without knowing pshat in a Tosfos. Limud Hatorah was no intellectual experience to Reb Baruch Ber. It was cleaving to the Almighty.

We find in a number of instances throughout Shas, that when one Tanna says an extremely sound svara, the other tanna will say משה שפיר קאמרת, Moshe you have said well. Obviously, not every Tanna is named Moshe. The ספרים הקדושים say that there is a little piece of Moshe Rabbeinu in every person and when you say something so profoundly in tune will an authentic Torah line of thought, it is that spark of Moshe Rabbeinu speaking up.

(This is what I have so far from last Shabbos. If anyone remembers what came next, please let me know.)