Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein, shlit”a, posed a very contemporary question to Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, zt”l, zy”a. He asked, “Since the Torah is described as, ‘Misukim m’devash v’nofes tzufim – It is sweeter than honey and the most delectable honeycombs,’ then how come so many people do not taste this honey?” Rav Zilberstein continued, “Countless individuals sit in a lecture or by a Gemara class and their eyes are darting furtively toward the clock to see when the session will be over. Many boys sit and study day after day, for eight hours a day, but if they’re honest with themselves they feel that it’s a daily grind. They don’t at all experience the aforementioned sweetness.”
Rav Shteinman gave a surprising answer. Every morning, we say birchas haTorah, the blessing regarding Torah study. This bracha is one of the few Biblical berachos. (The only other ones are the berachos of bentching.) In our blessing on the Torah, we say the request, “V’ha’arev na, Hashem Elokeinu, es diveri Soros’cha b’finu – Please, Hashem, make sweet the words of the Torah in our mouths.” Rav Shteinman maintained that many people say this blessing early in the morning before they are fully awake. They therefore don’t say it with enough thought and concentration. He proposed that if we heighten our kavannah, concentration, in this supplication, we will see a difference in the joy that we experience from our Torah learning.
I would like to humbly add some thoughts to Rav Shteinman’s counsel. It is a known fact that the yetzer hara, the evil inclination, is selective about which areas he strives to get us to stray. For example, the relationship he tries the hardest to wreck is the one we have with our spouse. This is since it is this relationship that the Shechina, the Divine Presence in the home depends upon. As we are taught, “Ish v’isha shalom beineihem, Shechina shruya beineihem – A husband and wife, if peace dwells with them, the Divine Presence resides in their midst.” So too, an adolescent is challenged by the yetzer hara most ferociously when it comes to honoring their parents for at that stage of life that is their most important relationship.
But, without question, the mitzvah that the yetzer hara is the most focused upon to cause us to sin with, is the mitzvah of learning Torah. After all, the Torah is the yetzer hara’s nemesis. As the Gemara in Masechtas Kiddushin categorically teaches us, “Barasi yetzer hara, barasi Torah tavlin lah – I created the yetzer hara and I created Torah as the antidote to it.” Therefore, the yetzer hara will use its most clever wiles to stop us from learning Torah. This is why so many people feel that Torah is a burden. Because the yetzer hara is working overtime to distract us from the sweetness of Torah.
I would like, therefore, to propose another area of our prayers which will greatly help in our Torah efforts. Within the Yehi ratzon we say in the birchas hashachar, we state, “V’al tashlet banu yetzer hara – Let not the evil inclination rule over us.” We should intently pray to Hashem that the yetzer hara not mess around with and disrupt our Torah enjoyment.
Yet another suggestion to elevate our Torah experience is to train ourselves to learn Torah lishma, for its own sake. In the sixth perek of Pirkei Avos, Rav Meir succinctly advises, “Kol ha’oseik baTorah lishma, zoche lid’vorim harbeih – Whoever is occupied with Torah for its own sake will merit many things.” Thus, we see that the many rewards of Torah, including being sweet, is dependent upon learning Torah with the right intentions. We can ensure that we do this by having in mind, before we start learning, that we want to fulfill the mitzvah of v’dibarta bam, to speak about them. The Ran, in the first perek of Nedarim, states v’dibarta bam refers to the mitzvah to study Torah. We can add to this the chassidishe idea, “V’la’asos nachas ruach l’Yotz’reinu,” that we are learning Torah to “Give nachas to our Creator.”
Here’s another thought. You could have a $2,000 bottle of aged wine. If you pour it into a glass with soap bubbles and residual grime, it will not be very tasty. In the same way, if our heads are full of forbidden images and immoral thoughts, the mind cannot experience the sweetness of Torah. This is one of the reasons that we say na’aseh v’nishma, we will do and we will listen. Listening is learning the Torah, when we listen to the Word of Hashem. But first we have to do, and that doing is to ensure that we have a clean mind and heart. It is only then that we truly can taste the delectable taste of Torah.
Finally, we know that the backdrop for the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai was smoke, blackness, and chilling thunder. The obvious question is, why wasn’t the Torah given with a backdrop of light, with a blazing sun and strobes of brightness? The Tosefos HaRosh answers that it should have been given amid a brilliant light. However, we didn’t deserve that because we would sin afterwards with the golden calf. Hashem only punishes for the sins that we do now, but to enjoy the special light and sweetness of Torah, we need to practice what we learn. If a person comes to a shiur and then goes home and shouts at his wife, if a boy sits over the Gemara and then is chutzpadik to his parents, they will not taste the eternal flavor of the Torah.
May we put these ideas into practice and in that merit may we experience the sweetness of the Torah with long life, good health, and everything wonderful.
Transcribed and edited by Shelley Zeitlin.
