Insights and Pearls for the Weekly Torah Portion - "If you walk in My statutes" • True rest is the rest of the soul • In-depth Torah study creates new worlds • The habit of study surpasses the fulfillment of all commandments •

If you walk in My statutes (Bechukotai)

"If you walk in My statutes—that you should be laboring in the Torah" (Rashi): It is impossible to escape the Yetzer Hara (evil inclination) except through iyun (in-depth) Torah study. "A person who dies in a tent"—one must exert oneself in Torah, "killing" oneself over it, not studying Torah with laxity or ease. True rest is found only in the Torah: "And he saw that rest was good... and he bent his shoulder to bear"—the yoke of Torah (Rashi).

True Rest is the Rest of the Soul

Through Torah study, one polishes the soul, cleanses it, scrapes away all the zuhama (spiritual filth), casts all the filth outside, and merits menuchas hanefesh (rest of the soul).

A person must know that he is responsible for the works of Creation; every day the world must be created anew. The world is conducted according to those who study Torah. Through Torah study, we create the world: "For all the innovations in the works of Creation that Hashem, may He be blessed, renews every single day, it is all through the Torah... that on this day there is much rain and on this day there is dryness, and at this time it is cold and damp, etc., and all other such changes" (Likutey Halachos, Yibum 3).

Reb Noson explains that you are the one creating the world. You create the world—if you slept, a disaster occurred; if you daydreamed or spoke with someone during your study, a disaster occurred. "A person must know that there is no reason to read newspapers and no reason to know what is happening in the world; if you take an interest in the world for even one second, a disaster happens." A person must believe that the moment he neglects the Torah, a disaster occurs! You must know that all the changes in the world follow your Torah study. When a Jew studies, the whole world begins to love us. All the nations sometimes love us and sometimes hate us—anyone who has studied history knows that one year they love us and the next they hate us and want to destroy all the Jews—because everything depends on our Torah study, not on politicians or anything else.

In-Depth Torah Study Creates New Worlds

When a person studies Torah in-depth (iyun), and he invests his intellect into the Torah, he creates new worlds! He creates a new reality! Suddenly, new laws apply to him! He has money to travel to Uman! Suddenly he has abundance in spirituality and abundance in physicality! Because he created a new world. Before, he was in a world where he had no money, and now he is in a world where he already has money! A completely new world has come into being, because every moment a person creates new worlds. If a person studies Torah in-depth, he creates new worlds every second.

The Rebbe brings in Torah 101: "When a person commits a transgression, G-d forbid, the transgression and the sin are engraved upon his bones, as it is written (Ezekiel 32): 'And their iniquities shall be upon their bones.'" The Rebbe says: You want to atone for your transgressions? You want to erase your sins? It is difficult! For your transgressions are engraved upon your bones. Transgressions make the bones broken; all of a person's bones are broken—he hurts here, he hurts there—it is all from the transgressions. Every single sin makes an engraving on the bone. "And their iniquities shall be upon their bones"—the bones become hollow, they are already engraved, they have broken from the multitude of engravings. If a person wants to reconnect the bones anew, to rebuild them, to escape "their iniquities upon their bones," it is only through in-depth study—taking tests, being examined, and studying Torah with iyun (depth).

For the blemish, teshuvah (repentance) alone does not suffice because the bones are already broken and engraved. So how is teshuvah relevant? One must now draw down new mochin (intellect/consciousness) into the bone, to renew the bone, and this is through in-depth Torah study. Through the Torah, you activate all the cells that were already damaged, weakened, and had begun to wither. The study renews them, activates them, gives them mochin, and the Torah builds you and makes you into a new person.

A person looks for advice on how to escape bad character traits; so he has Hisbodedus (private prayer) and Chatzos (midnight lamentation), and it's all wonderful and good, but if he doesn't have in-depth Torah study, nothing will help him. Because if a person doesn't study Torah with iyun, then the main thing is missing from the book—there is no brain at all! For the mochin (intellect) is only received from in-depth Torah. It's like a person doing Hisbodedus but having no mochin at all; there is nowhere to pour the light into. Hashem wants to give to him! Tomorrow he will pray with kavanah (intention), but after the prayer, he immediately runs off to eat, he runs here, he runs to talk to his friend. By the time we say Aleinu, he is already taking off his Tefillin, already talking to his friend. So Hashem says to him: "I want to give to you after the prayer—say a verse, say two or three laws, study a few lines of Gemara—then you will have a wonderful intellect and understand everything."

Because after a person asks in prayer, "And put into our hearts understanding to understand and to discern, to listen, to learn and to teach, to observe and to perform," and Hashem wants to give him all the mochin right now—at that moment he starts talking to his friend, or he runs out before Aleinu, or he's already taking off his Tefillin and is already outside, talking, arguing, or eating. Hashem says, "I wanted to give you wonderful mochin—where did you run off to?"

The Habit of Study Surpasses the Fulfillment of All Mitzvos

The Rebbe says that without in-depth Torah, there is no intellect, and everything a person does is missing the main point. For the Rebbe says the main thing is in-depth Torah study. Therefore, the Rebbe says that the habit of study surpasses the fulfillment of all mitzvos (commandments). The Rebbe brings in the Sefer HaMiddos (Book of Traits), section 33: "The habit of study surpasses the fulfillment of all mitzvos." One must become accustomed to study, as we ask immediately in the morning, "And make us accustomed to Your Torah"—that we should become habituated in Torah study. But the Rebbe says that just being habituated is not enough!

If a person recites Gemara like Tehillim (Psalms), it is not enough. One needs "Make us accustomed!" To study with iyun (depth)—that is called "Make us accustomed!" To take the Rashba, and Ramban, and Ritva, and Shita Mekubetzet, and the Rosh, and the Rif, and the Ran, and the Nimukei Yosef—everything there is—and the Maharam Schiff, and the Maharsha, and the Bach, and everything possible. And if the Maharsha is difficult for you, take an easier commentator, but your head must always be in iyun, always standing in depth. The Rebbe says that if a person stands in iyun—"delving into and understanding the wisdom of the Torah—then he merits that the yoke of the government and the yoke of worldly cares are removed from him." This only comes through in-depth study, delving into and understanding the wisdom of the Torah. Then he merits Anpin Nahirin (a shining countenance). When a person's entire thought is only on in-depth Torah—on the Gemara, to understand the Gemara well, to understand the sugya (topic) well, to understand all the Rishonim (early commentators) and all the Acharonim (later commentators), to summarize it, to write it down, and meanwhile to innovate a few more chiddushim (original Torah insights)—at that moment he merits such Anpin Nahirin that the whole world returns in teshuvah (repentance). He receives such a shining countenance that the whole world repents because of his face: "A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and through this, the yoke of the government and the yoke of worldly cares are removed from him." Then there is no yoke of government in the world—no Russians, no Arabs, no gentiles, nothing at all. There is no yoke of government. If one person puts his head into in-depth Torah study, Hashem is willing to remove the yoke of government from the world—all the yokes of the kingdoms—to nullify the kingdoms so that only the People of Israel shall rule, only the Torah shall rule.

This lesson has undergone editing; if any error has occurred, it should not be attributed, G-d forbid, to The Rav shlit"a, but rather to the writer—"and the error remains with us." Illustration courtesy of the artist R' Yehoshua Wiseman. To purchase: www.yehoshuawiseman.com

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