A Sharp Mind? Only with Gemara! The Daily Strengthening from The Rav

The daily strengthening from The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a – “All a person’s Torah insights are mockery without the Tzaddik”

“I will sing to Hashem, for He has triumphed gloriously” (Shemos 15:1)

“The chieftains of Moav—trembling grips them” (Shemos 15:15)

“And it was in the morning—and behold, she was Leah…” (Megillah 13b)

“And like a Rachel before her shearers” (Yeshayahu 53:7)

Thursday, 17 Teves 5785 – “Without in-depth Gemara study, the prayers are not accepted.”

These are his holy words:

“And they eat mustard-mockery” (Tosafos, Bava Basra 18b)—they (the bees) eat up the mockeries. Without the Tzaddik, everything is just cynicism; everything is mockery. An ordinary person scoffs; an ordinary person ridicules. All of his ‘new Torah insights’ are nothing but mockery without the Tzaddik.

“I will sing to Hashem, for He has triumphed gloriously” (Shemos 15:1)—“triumphed gloriously” alludes to Leah. Rebbe Nachman writes in Torah 5 in Likkutei Moharan that first one enters into Leah, and afterward into Rachel.

All the avodah is to connect Leah with Rachel: “The chieftains of Moav—trembling grips them” (Shemos 15:15). 274 is the joining of Leah and Rachel: Leah is 36 and Rachel is 238. Together they equal the gematria of רע"ד, 274 (with the kolel, “The chieftains of Moav—trembling grips them”).

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And this is the avodah—that we should connect Leah with Rachel, because Rachel gives the signs to Leah (Megillah 13b—“And it was in the morning—and behold, she was Leah. But at night she was not Leah, because Yaakov had given signs to Rachel; and when Rachel saw that they were bringing Leah in to him, she said: Now my sister will be humiliated. She stood up and gave her those signs”).

Rachel hands over the signs—Rabbi Nosson says that without learning Gemara it is impossible to reach anything. Rachel is Gemara study (“And like a Rachel before her shearers,” Yeshayahu 53:7); Leah is prayer.

The Rebbe says that only through Torah study are prayers and requests accepted—without learning Gemara, no prayer is accepted.

A person must know that even though we are Breslov, the Rebbe’s foundation is Gemara study. Rebbe Nachman said: I wanted to draw them into action. People don’t know that Breslov is only Gemara study. People don’t know that Breslov is only Gemara study—learning Ketzos HaChoshen, Nesivos HaMishpat, Tekifo Kohen—Gemara studied in depth. The Rebbe said a person needs to know all the commentators.

The Rebbe says explicitly (Torah 101 in Likkutei Moharan) to learn Gemara in depth—only this subdues the kelipos. Plain Gemara study

does not subdue the kelipos; it is like saying Tehillim.

A person needs to learn Gemara in depth. The Rebbe says in Torah 101 that one must truly learn in depth with Ketzos HaChoshen and Nesivos HaMishpat, because only through learning Gemara is prayer accepted—because through learning Gemara he builds the parts of the intellect. A person who does not learn Gemara collapses at age 70–80; the mind collapses. Only Gemara holds the mind together.