The Main Thing Is Learning Torah

The Daily Strengthening from our teacher, the holy Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a — “Menashe is, in potential, more righteous than Ephraim”

“Know: through the Torah, all the prayers and all the requests that we ask and pray are accepted” (Likutey Moharan I)

Tuesday, 9 Shevat 5783 — “You want your prayer to be accepted? That comes through learning Torah.”.

These are his holy words:

Asenath is seven times Chochmah (Wisdom). Asenath is 73 times seven = 511; 73 is Chochmah.

Asenath is the holiest name, because she brought Menashe and Ephraim into the world. Ephraim is Moshiach ben David; Menashe is “Ephraim and Menashe.”

Yaakov crossed his hands—why did he cross them? Yosef brought Menashe to Yaakov’s right and Ephraim to his left. Now, if Yosef had come running suddenly with his children straight up to Yaakov… but Yosef bows down, falls to the ground. He approaches his father with fear and awe—step by step.

He isn’t arguing with Yaakov by placing Ephraim at his father’s right—like he’s suddenly a world champion sprinter who can get there in a few seconds. So tell him to bring Ephraim to the right and Menashe to the left—why would Yaakov need to cross his hands?

Because you can’t move Menashe—Menashe is the firstborn. Menashe is more righteous than Ephraim, but only in potential.

Ephraim learns Torah. Ephraim served Yaakov for 17 years, and Menashe served Yosef. It goes by Torah learning: by Torah learning, Ephraim is greater—the main thing is learning Torah.

Rebbe Nachman says in Torah 1 (Likutey Moharan) that the first thing is to learn Torah. You want your prayer to be accepted? That comes through learning Torah. Your prayer cannot be accepted except through learning Gemara.

People come to Breslov and then throw off the yoke completely—they don’t learn, they don’t pray; they dance on the shtenders, on the tables, and think that’s how they’ve fulfilled their obligation. But it’s not like that.

A person needs to learn eight pages of Gemara a day—to finish 2,700 pages in a year. To be Breslov means to know 2,700 pages of Gemara. A person learns in yeshivah eight hours in depth, hears shiurim, and still has another eight hours to learn broadly—and eight hours to sleep. There are 24 hours; you can divide the day calmly. And on Friday there is also the parashah—half an hour and you finish the parashah; with Rashi it’s an hour.

Eight hours of learning in depth: you learn a sugya, you take one sugya and go deeply into it—you learn Ketzos HaChoshen on the sugya of mustard and the bees.