"When They Offered Strange Fire" (3:4) - There is One Who Learns and Illuminates, and One Who Learns and Darkens

Not everyone who sits in front of a Gemara truly grasps the hidden light within it. The Torah, like fire, can warm, illuminate, and revive. But equally, it can burn, dry out, and cause destruction. It's not the words that matter, but the heart behind them. Not the quantity, but the intention. Unfortunately, even in a generation with an abundance of lessons and books, the light doesn't always descend to the world. Without humility, without truth, without a true tzaddik guiding the study, even the Torah can become 'strange fire.' And this is exactly what needs to be clarified now: How do we approach the Torah in a way that revives and does not destroy?

These are the holy words of our teacher, the esteemed Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a:

Incorrect Torah Study Can Lead to Departure from the World or Turn a Person into a Jewish Demon

The moment a person engages in Torah, the moment a person engages in words of kedushah (holiness), but not for the sake of Heaven, not according to their level, not with the simplicity and sincerity that belongs to them, they study Torah incorrectly, this is called offering strange fire! Nadav and Avihu, holy and exalted, whom we cannot comprehend, merited and departed from the world and remained true tzaddikim, because when a person merits, they depart from the world but remain a tzaddik, and if they do not merit and continue in their mistake without doing teshuvah (repentance), they become a Jewish demon.

"And Lavan is a Jewish demon scholar whose Torah is for pride and contention... and such a scholar, a carcass is better than him... and Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted his voice and wept" – our Rebbe says in Torah 12 that Jacob's meeting with Rachel was solely to establish the people of Israel as a treasured nation. And at the moment he met her, he received such divine inspiration that he saw his entire plan, his entire mission would fail due to unworthy learners who would turn the Gemara and the Torah into tools for their pride. "And he lifted his voice and wept" – Jacob our father wept! He saw with divine inspiration how much the people of Israel would still suffer and endure in exile, all because of unworthy learners who would not withstand the test and would fail in pride and arrogance.

The Tannaim who composed the Gemara did not do so to tell us more wisdoms; they could have written halachic rulings like the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch and be done! Why all the debates in the Gemara? Why all the teachings in the Gemara? – Every Amora, every Tanna, could have issued his own halachic rulings from what he received from his teachers and be done! But the holy Gemara is the power to bring down the Shechinah, by learning, by toiling in Torah, it gives the power to return the Shechinah to the people of Israel, through the toil of study, bringing divinity back to the people of Israel. The Rebbe revealed how the redemption will be – the redemption will only be through learning Gemara correctly. The evil inclination knows that everything will be thanks to the study of the Gemara! The evil inclination knows very well what the voice of the holy Gemara study does! He knows that every word in the holy Gemara is a combination of holy names! The evil inclination knows that through learning Gemara, through learning Torah for its own sake, a person gains the strength to serve Hashem, to pray with intention, to do Hitbodedut, and therefore the hardest test is in the study of the Gemara.

"And the Evil Inclination Intensifies to Cause a Person to Learn with Pride"

When a person learns, they gain pride from the very act of learning, and in this pride, there are two aspects – they have the pride that they are learning, that they are a scholar, that they are wise, that they are a genius, and they also gain pride to mock others, to ridicule others, and this is what our Rebbe explains in Torah 12, that there are such scholars who always mock the tzaddikim even though those tzaddikim are greater than them even in learning! Nevertheless, they mock them. When we learn Torah, our goal is not just to be geniuses! Rather, our goal is that through our learning, we draw closer to Hashem, feel Hashem, pray with more intention, feel the love of Hashem as King David said, "But as for me, the nearness of Hashem is my good."

When a person sees that they have been learning Torah for many years and have not progressed at all, a resentment forms in their heart as if against the Torah, why hasn't the Torah advanced them? After all, they decided to learn Torah! They didn't just decide! They wanted to become a new person! In the end, they see they haven't changed at all, they remain as before with the same bad traits, the bad traits have even worsened! They don't understand what's happening here, it seems to them as if Hashem is weak in helping them. Our Rebbe says in Torah 12 that the mistake lies in the need for a true tzaddik, a worthy scholar to guide them and teach them how to learn Torah for its own sake, how to break pride during learning, how to learn Gemara and at the same time remain in utmost humility and lowliness. Because for the Torah to move something within the internal system of a person, for their traits to change, their nature, their inclinations, they need to find such a tzaddik called an angel of Hashem of hosts – as it is written if the teacher resembles an angel of Hashem of hosts, seek Torah from his mouth. And when they don't have such a tzaddik, it's hard for them to reach the good path, they learn Torah, they have a lot of knowledge, they can be a great genius, they can be the greatest advisor in the world! But it's like Ahitophel who reached the level of Urim and Tumim, yet he has no share in the World to Come.

The Zohar says: "Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world" – know that you who study Torah, you hold in your hands the keys to the world, Torah learners hold in their hands the keys to the existence of the world, the continuity of the world, and when they hold the keys correctly, when they learn with humility and lowliness, the world functions properly – nations live, nations create, nations build, nations continue to exist, but when they hold the keys incorrectly, nations are destroyed, nations conquer each other, destroy each other, the earth shakes. All the disasters heard every day around the globe come because Torah is learned incorrectly, it comes due to words spoken "not as they should be," as the Zohar calls it "not as they should be," these words spoken are what destroy the world! Because the world stands only on words of Torah, the world stands only on the letters and words of Torah spoken every moment and second by those who learn it, when Torah is learned as it should be, the world exists – when Torah is not learned as it should be, the world is destroyed.

"Learning Torah with Humility and Lowliness"

A person who decides to learn Torah becomes the master of the world! And when they learn Torah with humility and lowliness and know they are less than anyone else, they do not speak against anyone, they do not mock anyone, they learn Torah with Tikkun Chatzot, with prayers with intention, then they merit that their Torah sustains the world, but if they do not follow this path, it is the cause of all the destruction and ruin in the world.

Every day a heavenly voice goes out and cries "Woe to the creatures from the insult of the Torah" – if you learn Torah, know! You have received a device to control the entire world! You control the world! You give life to the world! You are responsible for the world! When a spaceship is sent into space, thousands of experts stand below in a control room and monitor all the lights, all the indicators to ensure everything functions properly, and if there are people in the spaceship, they are even more concerned and ensure everything works and functions properly! So that no harm comes to people. The analogy is that when a person learns Torah, they receive a spaceship! They receive control! They receive the entire earth with several billion people, they control the entire earth, and all the lights and indicators and communication devices in this spaceship, on earth, are operated only by these holy letters, only by the holy Torah, when we say these letters, we give life and control to that giant spaceship called earth.

The "Mei Marom" says woe to the creatures from the insult of the Torah!, such a giant device is given to a person, they are given control over the entire earth, they are given control over such a giant spaceship with several billion people, and a person disrespects this device, does not care to learn Torah properly and uses it incorrectly. Therefore, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai said to the companions "Please, I beg you! Do not utter any word, any Torah teaching from your mouth "not as they should be" so as not to cause disasters, killings, earthquakes in the world, and the companions said - may Hashem save us, may Hashem save us! If this is the power of the Torah, if there is such power in the Torah, that with one word you can destroy countries and cause destruction and disasters, we pray that Hashem saves us.