The winter months are rapildy arrpoaching and with the longer nights comes the opportunity for longer Torah study. As with all our mitzvos , we try and aim for quality performance rather than superficial and mundane. The baalei mussar observe that if we ate the marror in public and took the arbah minim in private the size of both would be very different. In the realm of Torah study, we too have opportunities for quality learning. The Gemoroh in Chagiga 9b records a conversation between Bar Hei Hei and Hillel:
“What is the meaning of that which is written: “Then you shall again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between he who serves Hashem and he who does not serve Him” (Malachi 3:18). Surely a righteous person is one who serves Hashem, so why repeat the idea?
Hillel said to him: The one “who serves Him” and the one “who does not serve Him” are both referring to completely righteous people. But the verse is hinting at a distinction between them, as one who reviews his studies one hundred times is not comparable to one who reviews his studies one hundred and one times.
אינו דומה שונה פרקו מאה פעמים לשונה פרקו מאה ואחד
This is not simple mathematics. It appears than unlike our attention deficit generation when we struggle to focus for more than a few moments, in times past they actually reviewed their learning 100 times. Therefore a person who went beyond the norm and continued to review just one more time had achieved a qualitatively different level of learning. They were also called an עובד אלקים.
Boruch Hashem we have so many mosdos Torah all over the world. We can say with confidence that there isn’t a moment in any 24 hour period that yidden are not learning. However we need to strive not just for knowledgeable Torah Scholars but communities who develop a relationship with the “Giver of Torah” and become Ovdei Hashem. The Sefas Emes writes on parahas chukas “Every individual Jew has a portion in our Holy Torah; he must only draw himself close to the light of the Torah through Yiras Shomayim. When it becomes clear to the individual that all of his strength stems from Hakodosh Boruch Hu, he will find his own kind, and his portion of the Torah, that which is impressed and engraved in every individual Jew, will be awakened.” We all have a connection deep in our neshomos we just need to move out of being a robot and become alive to awaken it.
The Gemoroh is telling us that 100 times in rote repeating the learning just one more times shows a person’s inner desire.
The posuk in parashas Yisro says:
וְאִם־מִזְבַּ֤ח אֲבָנִים֙ תַּֽעֲשֶׂה־לִּ֔י לֹֽא־תִבְנֶ֥ה אֶתְהֶ֖ן גָּזִ֑ית
And if you make for Me an altar of stones, do not build it of hewn stones
Rashi teaches:
ואם מזבח אבנים. רַבִּי יִשְׁמָעֵאל אוֹמֵר כָּל אִם וְאִם שֶׁבַּתּוֹרָה רְשׁוּת חוּץ מִג', וְאִם מִזְבַּח אֲבָנִים תַּעֲשֶׂה לִּי, הֲרֵי אִם זֶה מְשַׁמֵּשׁ בִּלְשׁוֹן כַּאֲשֶׁר – וְכַאֲשֶׁר תַּעֲשֶׂה לִי מִזְבַּח אֲבָנִים לא תבנה אתהן גזית, שֶׁהֲרֵי חוֹבָה עָלֶיךָ לִבְנוֹת מִזְבַּח אֲבָנִים,
Every time the word "im" is used in the Torah, it refers to actions the doing of which is optional ("if"), except in three instances: "And when ('im') you make Me an altar of stone…"
Rashi is quoting from the Midrash which continues by teaching that
a person who does them out of obligation, as if he were fulfilling a royal edict, does not please Hashem. For a person must do them of his own free will, and when he does them of his own free will, Hashem is pleased.
The Maharal explains that the three mitzvot should be fulfilled because of an inner desire to fulfill them. This makes sense with lending money without interest: a person should perform acts of charity not because he is obligated to do so, but because he has a generous heart and he wishes to be charitable. Similarly, regarding the mitzva of the omer meal-offering, we understand that it should be performed out of a sense of thanksgiving to Hashem.
As for the mitzva of building a stone altar, Maharal writes:
For if he builds a מזבח, and he fulfills the mitzva] merely as a royal edict – this is not service, for service must be performed willingly, and then he is called "a servant."
We see from here that "a servant" is one who acts out of free will, and not only because of some external factor.
According to the Rambam, Torah study is not only a fulfillment of the mitzva of וְלִמַּדְתֶּ֥ם אֹתָ֛ם אֶת־בְּנֵיכֶ֖ם לְדַבֵּ֣ר בָּ֑ם but also a fulfillment of the mitzva of serving Hashem.
In conclusion the Midrash Rabba says:
Can you conceive a transaction in which the seller is sold with his goods? Hashem, said to the Yidden: "I have sold you My Torah, but with it, as it were, I also have been sold," as it says: "That they take Me an offering" – they take Me.
Thus Hashem said: "I have given you a Torah from which I cannot part, and I also cannot tell you not to take it; but this I would request: wherever you go make for Me a house wherein I may live.
When we
learn Torah we build our own connection with Hashem. When our communities learn Torah not just for knowledge sake but because we want to know and better understand the “Giver” we help to secure our long term survival in this dark golus until Moshiach brings us back to Yerusholoyim.
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