Learn Torah and You’ll Become a Genius

The Daily Chizuk from The Rav, the holy Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a — How could a father expel his own daughter like that?

“And He called to Moshe, and Hashem spoke to him from the Tent of Meeting, saying” (Vayikra 1:1)

“In the beginning, Elokim created” (Bereishis 1:1)

“Please send by the hand of the one You will send” (Shemos 4:13)

Sunday, 10 Elul 5783 — “On every letter in the Torah there are billions of secrets.”

These are his holy words:

Bring the Midrash Rabbah and Chumash Bereishis—there is enough material here for a thousand years. We’ll try to compress it into half an hour. Until Vayikra, it’s all Midrashim.

Vayikra begins: “And He called… Hashem” (Vayikra 1:1). Moshe saw a vav spread across the entire world, a yud spread across the entire world.

Moshe didn’t simply write the Torah in a casual way. It wasn’t that Hashem told him, “In the beginning, Elokim created” (Bereishis 1:1), and Moshe went down and wrote, “In the beginning, Elokim created.” Rather, Hashem showed him a beis spanning the entire world; afterward a reish spanning the entire world; an alef spanning the entire world; a shin spanning the entire world; a yud spanning the entire world; a tav spanning the entire world. Moshe saw the beis—and he wrote; the reish—and he wrote. So it was with every letter: Hashem showed him the letter, and he wrote it.

Every letter contains billions of secrets. On every tiny stroke and thorn of a letter there are heaps upon heaps of halachos. All the secrets were transmitted to Rabbi Akiva. You see it from this: does a Rav travel to a student? So how did Rabbi Eliezer HaGadol and Rabbi Yehoshua—who were his Rabbanim—travel to Rabbi Akiva? After all, he learned Torah from them. From here you see the greatness of Rabbi Akiva.

When Rachel the daughter of Kalba Savua married him, Rabbi Akiva did not know how to read or write. Years later, Kalba Savua came to Rabbi Akiva and told him the terrible story. He said that he had placed his daughter under a vow and expelled her from the house. Terrible stories—I’m uncomfortable even repeating the story of a person who throws his own daughter out of the home. I’ve never heard such a thing; maybe in our times there are such things, I don’t know.

Kalba Savua had a righteous daughter, a good daughter—why he expelled her, I don’t know. In the end Rabbi Akiva asked him why he expelled him (meaning: your son-in-law—referring to himself). Why? (Kalba Savua didn’t know he was speaking with his son-in-law.) Because he didn’t know Mishnah?

Kalba Savua answered: What Mishnah? He didn’t know Birchas HaMazon. He didn’t know alef-beis! All this was in the conversation that took place when they met after 24 years. Rabbi Akiva asked him: How could you do such a thing—to throw the girl out of the house? Explain to me—how does someone do such things?

The Midrash HaGadol is a collection of all the Midrashim that were lost to us. The Midrash HaGadol says in Shemos on the verse, “Please send by the hand of the one You will send” (Shemos 4:13): Kalba Savua said, “It has already been 24 years since I expelled my daughter and swore that I would not support her. I asked, ‘How is she doing?’ They told me that now she is hungry, thirsty, without clothing, sleeping on the ground.”

“When I expelled her, her husband (Rabbi Akiva) didn’t know how to recite any blessing in the world. Suddenly my daughter—who was the most successful, the most wonderful—went and took for herself some shepherd.”

Rabbi Akiva said to him: If the son-in-law had known Scripture or Mishnah—if he had known even one verse—would you have expelled her like that?

Chas v’shalom. Even if he had known how to say one blessing, I would not have expelled them. I didn’t expel them for nothing—don’t suspect me of being a wicked man who threw his daughter out. I would have given him half my wealth if he had known how to say a blessing.

Rabbi Akiva then revealed himself to him and said: So what—doesn’t he deserve it? But it’s me! Kalba Savua fainted on the spot.

Rachel married Rabbi Akiva because she understood that if he would begin learning Torah, he would become the greatest genius in the world. She penetrated to the depth of his soul and understood that standing before her was a man who, for now, didn’t even know alef-beis—but if he would start learning, he would become the greatest genius in the world. He only needed to begin learning.

A person can be the most foolish in the world, but if he just opens a Gemara and begins to learn, he becomes the Gadol HaDor—he becomes Rabbi Akiva.