Menachos, Daf 83
Our Gemara on amud aleph quotes a verse in Vayikra (7:37):
“This is the Torah (instructions) of the burnt offering, the grain offering, the purgation offering, the reparation offering, the offering of ordination, and the sacrifice of well-being.”
There are several midrashim that notice the use of the phrase “This is the Torah.” The pashut peshat is that Torah here means ritual instruction or directions. However, some understand it literally, that the study of Torah is a form of sacrifice. Even more, Torah itself generates forgiveness.
Nefesh HaChaim (IV:31) quotes the Zohar (Shlach 159a):
“Rabbi Yehuda began… ‘It is important for people to deeply contemplate the Holy One’s (blessed be He) work. It is important for people to toil and contemplate the words of the Torah, for anyone who is involved with Torah is as if he offers all of the sacrifices in the world before the Holy One (blessed be He). And not only that, but the Holy One (blessed be He) awards atonement for all of his obligations, and they prepare for him a number of thrones in the world-to-come.’”
And also for this reason, involvement with Torah atones for all sins, as the sages stated (at the end of Menachos 110a): “Why is it written (Vayikra 7:37), ‘This is the Torah of the burnt-offering, of the meal-offering, and the sin-offering…’? And they deduce that anyone who is involved with Torah has no need for a burnt-offering, nor a meal-offering, nor a sin-offering, nor a guilt-offering.”
Likewise, in Tanchuma, Parshas Tzav, and in Shemos Rabba, parsha 38: “The Holy One (blessed be He) said to them: ‘It is words I ask of you… and I forgive all your sins.’” And “words” are none other than words of Torah…
And in Zohar Tzav (35a): “Come and observe…, because of that, one who labors in Torah doesn’t need sacrifices nor offerings, for the Torah is better than all of them and connects all the parts of faith.”
Anyone who has gone through a traditional yeshiva education is familiar with this unique aspect of Jewish tradition. Torah study is not just for knowledge, nor is it merely a mitzvah to study, but it is also a redemptive, elevating process. The question is: what is the spiritual and psychological mechanism? Let us explore a number of reasons offered by various mussarists and commentaries.
Nefesh HaChaim (IV:31) argues that while repentance may involve confession and abstaining from sin, the root of it is simply returning to G-d and recovering that attachment. The blessing in Shemoneh Esrei that asks for assistance in repentance states: “Return us, our Father, to Your Torah… and restore us before You with a complete repentance.” The study of Torah engenders love and attachment to G-d and therefore can be the highest form of repentance.
Nefesh HaChaim (ibid.) also says that there is a certain light and power in Torah that overcomes darkness and evil. Sometimes even persons who are immersed in impurity slowly become enlightened by Torah. Eicha Rabbah (Pesicha 2) has G-d lamenting: “If only they had forsaken Me and observed My Torah… By engaging in Torah, the light that is in it would have returned them to the good path.” Rav Huna said: Study Torah even if it is not for its own sake, as through doing so not for its own sake, one comes to do so for its own sake.
And lastly, we find an explanation from the Maharal (Tiferes Yisroel 70):
Torah is pure intellect. Sin is the opposite. It is the emphasis of the physical over the spiritual and a detachment from G-d. Therefore, if one uses Torah to enter this elevated intellectual state, he will reverse and overcome the physical taints and stains of sin.
It is important to note that the word intellect, to the Maharal, is meant in the sense that the ancients understood intellect. They did not mean brains. They meant the power and ability for higher thinking, which cannot merely be a biological process. Insight, autonomy, and wisdom are seen as a gift from G-d, the source of all wisdom and the way in which our souls are part of G-d. Torah study is designed to develop this aspect within us – to emulate G-d’s intellect, which is a combination that manifests in kindness, wisdom, understanding, and moral reasoning.
(The above is based on and adapted from ideas found in Notes by Rabbi Yehoshua Hartman on Gevurot Hashem 65:245.)
Magic vs. Meaning
Daf 85
Our Gemara on amud aleph relates an interesting encounter between Moshe and the magicians of Egypt:
“Moses and Aaron’s first meeting with Pharaoh: Aaron cast his staff to the ground, whereupon it turned into a serpent. Pharaoh’s necromancers then duplicated the feat using their incantations, only to then be confounded when Aaron’s staff swallowed up all of theirs (see Exodus 7:10-12).”
“The Gemara relates the conversation that took place: Pharaoh’s two leading necromancers, Yochana and Mamre, said to Moses: Are you bringing straw to Afarayim? Performing necromancy in Egypt, the world leader in sorcery, is like bringing straw to Afarayim, which is rich in the finest grains. Moses said to them: It is as people say: To a city rich in herbs, take herbs.”
How do we understand Moshe’s reply? Rashi understands it as a nonsense answer. A scoffer cannot be convinced even when presented with the strongest evidence, because he is not open-minded. Moshe did not bother to argue; he knew that over time these magicians would see wonders and miracles far beyond first-grade magic tricks. It is an interesting strategy, namely that some people are simply not worth debating.
However, other commentaries understand Moshe’s answer to be more substantive. Rashi in the kesav yad implies a different approach. Moshe was saying, “Bring it on!” Meaning, one often brings trade to a hub in the marketplace because, in the end, there is more opportunity to showcase one’s goods. If the goods are superior, it will win out. In a place where people are experts in magic, they will be able to appreciate that the wonders and signs from G-d exceed any human ability, and so they will know it is true.
The Pri Tzaddik (Miketz 4) offers a most intriguing and creative interpretation. The spiritual forces in this world come about via dual possibilities – for good or evil. Usually, at the same time that a window for evil opens up and becomes dominant, a new positive spiritual potential unfolds as well. Thus, the spiritual power of Egypt’s magic was not a sidebar, but a harbinger of a new spiritual window that was opening for humanity. Its most positive form culminated in the revelation at Mount Sinai, and its most toxic form was the magic used by the Egyptians to control fate without engaging with G-d via moral behavior and purity.
Likewise, he says, Babylonia was an intellectual center of the ancient world (with sophisticated astronomy, math, and medicine), and at a later time the Greek and Roman empires were as well. In those very locations, the Torah sheb’al peh flourished in the explosion of ethical and legal writings of the Talmud and midrashim. Pri Tzaddik says this was hardly a coincidence, but rather part of a new potential that the Jewish people employed in the most spiritual and moral manner.
This is what Moshe meant when he responded, “To a city rich in herbs, take herbs.” Egypt was the place to bring humanity to the next step of moral and intellectual development. Magic was an impure expression of this potential to bring more spiritual force into the world, which Moshe actualized via giving the Torah.
In a modern historical sense, we might consider that the development of modern psychology, Chassidus, and the mussar movement all took place within a relatively short span of time. Humanity was in a space where physical prosperity allowed for more introspection into our psyche regarding the motivations and inner nature of emotional and intellectual processes.