That You Should Labor in Torah - Parshat Bechukotai

Parashat Bechukotai, by the Gaon and Tzaddik, Rav Eliezer Berland shlit"a

"If you walk in My statutes - that you may toil in Torah" (Rashi)

It is impossible to escape the evil inclination except through studying Torah in depth (b'iyun). "A person who dies in a tent" must toil in Torah, to kill himself over it, not to study Torah with laxity or comfort. True rest is only Torah: "And he saw that rest was good... and he inclined 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 filth, casts all the filth outside, and merits the rest of the soul. A person must know that he is responsible for the acts of Creation; every day one must create the world anew. The world is conducted according to those who study Torah; through Torah study, one creates the world. "For all the innovations of the act of Creation that Hashem renews every day, everything is through the Torah... that on this day there is much rain, and on this day there is dry land, and at this time it is cold and damp, etc., and similar other changes" (Likutey Halachot, Yevum 3). Reb Noson explains that you create the world; you are creating the world. You slept and a disaster happened; you dreamed and spoke with someone during the study and a disaster happened. A person must know that there is no point in reading newspapers and no point in knowing what is happening in the world. You only take interest for one second in the world and a disaster occurs. A person must believe that the moment he is idle from Torah, a disaster occurs! You must know that all the changes in the world follow your Torah study. When a Jew studies, then the whole world begins to love us, because all the nations sometimes love us and sometimes they hate us. Whoever has studied history knows that one year they love and one year they hate and want to annihilate all the Jews, because everything depends on our Torah study, not on politicians or anything else. When a person studies Torah in depth and inserts his intellect into the Torah, then he creates new worlds! Then he creates a new reality! Suddenly he has new laws! He has money to travel to Uman! And suddenly he has abundance in spirituality, abundance in physicality! Because he created a new world. Thus, he was in a world where he had no money, and now he is in a world where he already has money! Because a completely new world has been created, for every moment a person creates new worlds. If a person studies Torah in depth, then he creates new worlds every second.

The Rebbe brings in Torah 201: "And when a person commits a transgression, Heaven forbid, then 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 transgressions? It is difficult! After all, your transgressions are engraved upon your bones; the transgressions made the bones broken. All of a person's bones are broken; it hurts here, it hurts there; it is all from the transgressions. Every single transgression makes an engraving on the bone. "And their iniquities shall be upon their bones" – the bones are hollow; they are already engraved; they have broken from the abundance of engravings. If a person wants to reconnect the bones, to rebuild them, to escape from the "iniquities upon their bones," it is only through study in depth, taking tests, being examined, studying Torah in depth. Because for a blemish, teshuvah (repentance) does not help, because the bones are already broken and already engraved, and therefore how is teshuvah relevant? One must now draw new intellect (mochin) into the bone, to renew the bone, and this is through studying Torah in depth. Through the Torah, you activate all the cells that have already been damaged, weakened, and have already begun to decay; the study renews them, activates them, gives them intellect. The Torah builds you and makes you a new person.

A person looks for advice on how to escape bad character traits, so he has hitbodedut (secluded prayer) and chatzot (midnight prayer), and everything is wonderful and good, but if he does not have Torah in depth, nothing will help him. Because if a person does not study Torah in depth, then the main thing is missing from the book; then there is no intellect at all, because one receives intellect only from Torah in depth. So it is like a person doing hitbodedut but he has no intellect at all, so there is nowhere to pour it out. Hashem wants to give it to him! Tomorrow he will pray with intent, and after the prayer, he is already running to eat; he has already fled here, he has already fled to talk to his friend. They say about us, he is already taking off his tefillin, he is already talking to his friend. So Hashem says to him, "I want to give you after the prayer that you should say some verse, that you should say some two or three laws, that you should study some few lines of the Gemara, then you will have wonderful intellect and understand everything." Because after in prayer a person asks, "And place in our hearts understanding to understand and to discern, to listen, to learn and to teach, to keep and to do," and Hashem wants to give him now all the intellect, so here he already starts talking to his friend, and here he flees before Aleinu, and he is already taking off his tefillin, and he is already outside, he is already talking, and already arguing, and already eating, and Hashem says, "I wanted to give you wonderful intellect, where did you flee from Me?"

So the Rebbe says that without Torah in depth, there is no intellect, and everything that a person does, then everything, everything is missing the main thing, because the main thing, the Rebbe says, is Torah in depth. And therefore the Rebbe says that the habit of study is greater than the fulfillment of all the commandments. The Rebbe brings in the study of Sefer HaMiddot, section 33, "That the habit of study is greater than the fulfillment of all the commandments." One must get used to studying, that we ask immediately in the morning, "And accustom us in Your Torah," that we should be accustomed to Torah study. And the Rebbe says that to be accustomed is not enough! So a person will say Gemara like Psalms; that is not enough. One needs "accustom us"! To study in depth is called "accustom us"! To take the Rashba, and the Ramban, and the Ritba, and the Shitah Mekubetzet, and the Rosh, and the Rif, and the Ran, and the Nimukei Yosef, everything that there is, and the Maharsham Schiff, and the Maharsha, and the Bach, and everything that is possible. And if the Maharsha is difficult for you, take some easier commentator, but your head must be all the time in depth, all the time standing in depth. So the Rebbe says that if a person stands in depth, "that he studies and understands the wisdoms of the Torah, then he merits that the yoke of royalty and the yoke of worldly affairs are removed from him." And this is only study in depth, that he studies and understands the wisdoms of the Torah, and then he merits a radiant countenance (anpin nehirin). And then when a person's entire thought is only in Torah in depth, in the Gemara to understand the Gemara well, to understand the passage well, to understand all the Rishonim and all the Acharonim, and to summarize it, and to write it, and meanwhile to innovate a few more innovations, then at that moment he merits such a radiant countenance that the whole world returns in teshuvah. He receives such a radiant countenance that the whole world returns in teshuvah from his face, "A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and thereby the yoke of royalty and the yoke of worldly affairs are removed from him." And then there is no yoke of royalty in the world; there are no Russians, and no Arabs, and no Gentiles, there is nothing, there is no yoke of royalty. One person who will insert his head into the Torah in depth, Hashem is ready to remove the yoke of royalty from the world, all the yokes of royalty, to abolish the kingdoms so that only the people of Israel will rule, only the Torah will rule.