A Celebration of Torah – Simchat Torah

Simchat Torah is the culmination and a celebration of Torah study in the previous year and an injection of "adrenaline" for the upcoming year's Torah study. In this shiur we will explore a key factor that will ultimately determine your success, or lack thereof in your study of Torah, not only in this coming year, but throughout your life.

Before HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us the Torah on Mt. Sinai, He commanded us to "cordon off the mountain" (Shemot 19:12). What was the purpose of preventing Am Yisrael ascending the mountain? There are many commentaries on this, I would like to bring that of the Malbim.

The Malbim (ibid.) quotes the Targum Yonatan as saying "Perhaps Am Yisrael will wish to gaze at the Shechina, therefore HaKadosh Baruch Hu warns them to not overstep the limits of their perception and think they have seen some kind of 'form'. Since they will not be able to separate what they saw from the limits of their human imagination, they will [chas v’shalom] imagine some physical boundary or form based on their physical sight and ascribe some physicality to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. This will damage their faith and many will fall as a result, as it is tantamount to avodah zarah – making an idol in thought."

The Malbim is teaching us that each person has a different capability of perception, and overstepping the limits of their perception can have disastrous results.

If misinterpreted, this perush of the Malbim could chas v’shalom lead to the greatest "cop-out" in Judaism.

A person might say to themselves "I have an IQ of 105, it is genetic, I have had this IQ from when I was born and I will die with this same IQ. Therefore, there is no point in me trying to attend Daf Yomi shiurim – they are beyond me. I cannot understand what they are saying most of the time, even though they are speaking English. Someone suggested I try join the Daf Yomi for the new masechet of Chulin. I tried for a few sessions, but they are talking about concepts that I have no understanding of. It is like listening to someone speaking in a foreign language. Better stick to my familiar parshat hashavua shiurim on YouTube, or stories of tzaddikim which I can understand – that is more my level! Even the Malbim explicitly says it – don't try to overstep your bounds, it could have disastrous results, right?"

Wrong. This is not what the Malbim is saying.

The Malbim is telling us "Don't jump ahead too quickly before you are ready". He is not telling us "Don't jump at all, stay as you are for the rest of your life!"

Not all of us are destined to be a Moshe Rabbeinu or a R' Akiva or a Rambam. For some, the pinnacle of our Torah study will be stories of tzaddikim. HaKadosh Baruch Hu is not interested in the endpoint; He is only interested in the "delta" between the endpoint and the starting point – how far have you progressed? Have you progressed at all?

Today you may not understand the foreign terms, especially when they are rattled off at high speed, in a Daf Yomi shiur. So, start at the beginning, like R' Akiva, who began Torah study aged forty plus, not even knowing the alef bet. Build up your alphabet one letter at a time, your vocabulary one word at a time. You may not yet be ready for a Daf Yomi shiur on Chulin right now, but make it your goal that one day you will be. R' Akiva only began the process when he was in his forties, others (like me) started even later. It is never too late!

"But that drudgery is so boring and uninspiring!" you may say to yourself, "I prefer to learn inspiring things, philosophical things, profound things, like the meaning of life, how to become my best self, how to inspire others!"

One person's drudgery is another's inspiration. Everyone is naturally drawn to something that interests them. There is not a single person on the face of the earth who is not interested in something. The Vilna Gaon calls it our own personal Ruach HaKodesh, that steers us to our ultimate purpose in life.

By all means devote your Torah study time to things that interest you. You may love stories of tzaddikim, learning about the middot and behavior of our gedolim. Devote your time to studying it if this is what grabs you. But keep delving further into it, digging deeper. Advance, do not remain static. It may begin with simple stories of the Avot, but it will eventually evolve into Mesilat Yesharim, Sha'arei Teshuvah and other intricate philosophical works.

As you dig deeper into your personal interest in the Torah, you will find how everything is connected and things that you thought had nothing to do with your realm of interest suddenly pop up. You may not think right now that the concept of "melicha" or "hadacha" has anything to do with your subject of interest, but I can guarantee you that it does, somehow. Eventually you will discover it and come to understand it in that context.

This is how we should be studying Torah. Not by going through a curriculum that everybody else tells you to, sequentially, in an order they tell you. But rather by choosing a subject that you love and using it as your gateway to the rest of the Torah. Studying something because you are told to and have to will never have the same value as studying something you love. When you love something, you won't need anyone to force you to study Torah related to that, you will do it willingly and often, because you enjoy it. You will end up crisscrossing masechtot and sefarim, studying an excerpt here, another excerpt there, rather than learning them sequentially from the beginning of the book to the end.

The end result will be the same, however. You will eventually visit the entire Torah, learnt through the prism of our own "chelek," part in the Torah. This is what we daven every morning "Vetein Chelkeinu BeToratecha," asking HaKadosh Baruch Hu to give us our own personal part in the Torah, from which we will branch out and traverse the entire Torah – thus making the Torah an extension of ourselves.

This is the profound lesson of the Malbim. Study something that grabs you and build it slowly, don't skip steps. Our modern world is an "instant" world. Everyone wants everything now, now, now! Nobody has any patience for anything anymore. Nobody wants to invest the time. When you rush things, when you skip important steps, says the Malbim, you risk becoming exposed to things you are not ready for and they can irreparably derail you.

Climbing mountains requires patience, persistence, but above all … it requires love. Beginning with your own "pet love" – the subject you are most attracted to – and eventually blossoming and flowering into an all-encompassing love for the Torah.

Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: Today we complete a cycle of Torah reading in one year. How long did it take in the time of Ezra HaSofer?

Answer to Last Shiur’s Trivia Question: How much water is 3 "log?" Approximately six egg volumes, or according to the Rambam – 300cc.