According to the gemora (Sanhedrin 26), Yeshaya
Hanovi
calls the Torah tushiyah: "[The Torah] is wonderful in
counsel and excellent in tushiyah" (Yeshaya
28:29),
suggesting that the Torah weakens man's physical power
(tushiyah
is related to mateshes, "weakening"). We are
accustomed
to understanding this simply: day-and-night Torah study,
exerting
ourselves to our maximum, saps our strength and weakens
us.
If this is Chazal's intention, what is the Torah's
extraordinary quality
that Yeshaya the novi wants to inform us of? Would it
not have
been more appropriate to praise the Torah for making us wiser
or for
refining our souls? What special importance is there in that
Torah
study devitalizes us?
Besides this obvious question, other statements of Chazal
indeed state
the opposite. The gemora (Kesuvos 62a) narrates
that
R' Abahu would lean on his two servants when walking. It
happened
that when the three were in a bath-house a deep cavity opened
up underneath
them and they were all about to fall into it to their death.
R' Abahu
picked up the two servants with one hand and, with the other,
while
holding them, climbed up a pole to safety.
Another story mentioned in that gemora tells that when
R' Yochonon
was walking up some steps he leaned on Rav Ami and Rav Assi
to assist
him. A step suddenly collapsed, and so to stop them from
falling R'
Yochonon carried them away from the danger. Although both R'
Abahu
and R' Yochonon were gedolei Torah they undeniably had
tremendous
physical strength. Is that not a contradiction to what we
learn from
the gemora in Sanhedrin?
I remember that Mori Verabi Maran HaRav
Eliyohu Lopian
zt'l, the mashgiach of Yeshivas Kfar Chassidim,
told
us that when he was a young talmid studying in
Yeshivas Lomza
in Poland he was so strong that once, when in a joyful mood,
he challenged
his friends to push down his raised arm placed on the table.
No one
was able to. R' Eli said that he could even bend a coin
between his
fingers. Such physical strength is apparently incompatible
with the
statement of Chazal that the Torah weakens those who study
it.
We encounter another difficulty in parshas Vayeitzei.
The Torah
tells us that the shepherds would lay a gigantic rock over
the local
well, and only their combined strength could dislodge it.
When Yaakov
Ovinu saw Rochel arriving with the sheep, "Yaakov went near
and
rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock
of Lovon,
his mother's brother" (Bereishis 29:11). Rashi
(ibid.)
writes in the name of Midrash Rabbah, "Yaakov
rolled
away the stone as a person removes a cork from a bottle,
which teaches
us that he was [physically] powerful."
This statement of Chazal that "this teaches us he was
powerful,"
indicates that Yaakov's ability to remove the heavy rock was
not a
miracle. If he had succeeded in rolling away the rock because
of a
miracle, how could that teach us "he was powerful"? But do
not Chazal tell us that the Torah weakens a person? How could
Yaakov
Ovinu possess such strength after he had just finished
studying for
fourteen years in the yeshiva of Shem and Ever? Yaakov was a
diligent
student, who studied continuously and never even slept in a
bed (see
Rashi on the posuk "and he lay down in that
place
to sleep" (Bereishis 28:11).
In order to resolve these grave difficulties I must first
cite an
anecdote from the gemora (Bovo Metzia 84a).
When Resh
Lokish was head of a group of robbers he saw R' Yochonon, who
had
been swimming, standing on the other side of the Jordan
River. In
order to rob R' Yochonon, he jumped at him from his side of
the Jordan.
R' Yochonon was amazed to see such incredible strength, and
told Resh
Lokish: "You should use your strength for Torah." He proposed
to Resh Lokish that instead of using his might for useless
and improper
endeavors, it is preferable to employ it for Torah study.
Resh Lokish
embraced R' Yochonon's counsel and then, when he wanted to
jump back
to fetch his possessions he could not. Rashi explains that
after he
accepted the yoke of Torah upon himself he became weak -- as
Chazal
teach us that the Torah weakens a person.
Why should Resh Lokish have become weak already at this
stage? He
had not even started studying Torah; all he had done was to
resolve
to start. He had not yet exerted himself in the sort of Torah
study
that could possibly weaken him.
We learn from this a pivotal principle about Torah study: A
person
who feels and understands the paramount importance of our
holy Torah
utilizes all his innate powers to engage himself exclusively
in Torah
study and is unable to waste his strength on insignificant
matters.
Let us demonstrate this through a moshol. Yankel, a
nine-year-old
child, returns home from cheder on a sweltering day.
He is
exhausted and sweating from the unbearable heat and lies down
to rest
up. His mother asks him to go to the nearby grocery store to
buy something
she needs. "But Mother," Yankel answers, "it's impossible
for me to help you until I rest for a quarter of an hour."
Suddenly Yankel hears from far away the shrilling sirens of a
fire
engine and an ambulance. In the wink of an eye Yankel leaps
out of
bed and is outside. He runs energetically in the direction he
heard
this bewitching clamor.
Yankel did not lie when he told his mother a few minutes
before that
he is too tired to walk to the grocery store on an errand.
Everything
depends on what is important, on what a person deems worthy
to use
his strength. For something he considers inconsequential, he
is indeed
too weak.
The Torah weakens a person because, although he retains all
his previous
physical powers, when all he wants is Torah study he does not
find
any reason to use these powers for other, unworthy matters.
It is
if he has become weakened in relation to those undeserving
matters.
R' Yochonon told Resh Lokish, when he saw him using all of
his strength
to leap across the Jordan River, that it was more appropriate
for
him to direct this strength to Torah study. After Resh Lokish
decided
to study Torah, he was unable to use his remarkable strength
for such
a meaningless act as jumping across the river.
Now we understand well how it could be that R' Abahu and R'
Yochonon
were strong enough to grab their assistants and pull them to
safety.
It is a mistake to think that Torah study actually depletes a
person's
strength; rather talmidei chachomim save their
physical power
for Torah study. The moment these Amoroim needed to
rescue
their assistants, they used their considerable physical
strength to
do so.
Yaakov Ovinu too was not weakened by studying with awesome
hasmodoh
for fourteen years at the yeshiva of Shem and Ever. Rather,
because
of his tremendous love for Torah he utilized all his
phenomenal strength
to toil over his studies. However, when he noticed Rachel's
qualities
he decided that for the sake of his spiritual future and so
as to
establish the shevotim, it was worthwhile to use his
physical
power to remove the heavy stone.
Yeshaya calls the Torah "tushiyah" since it induces
someone who studies it, someone who understands and feels its
importance,
to employ his powers exclusively for spiritual achievements.
Consequently
his strength available for other purposes will diminish. This
quality
shows the greatness of Torah study.
Resh Lokish was unique in another way, too. When he was about
to be niftar, the gemora (Gittin 47a)
tells us,
a few vegetables remained in his house. This vexed him and he
remarked
that he was one "who leaves his wealth to others"
(Tehillim
49:11).
This is surely not the way most other people feel. A person
is
more than glad to leave an inheritance to his beloved
offspring who
continue his lineage. Why was Resh Lokish different from
anyone else?
In fact this is the only such incident in the whole
Talmud.
That was Resh Lokish's ideology. He built his entire
weltanschauung
on R' Yochonon's advice to focus his colossal strength on
Torah study.
He decided that his entire life should be based on focusing
his whole
body and soul on Torah. Undoubtedly every time he was forced
to work
for his livelihood he appraised whether he was truly
exercising his
energy solely for this aim. He was annoyed when, at the end
of his
life, he saw that some vegetables had remained that he had
not used
for Torah study. He felt he had not succeeded in devoting all
of his
power to Torah and he was "leaving his wealth to others."
The gemora (Megilla 21a) tells us that from the
time of Moshe until Rabban Gamliel people would study Torah
while
standing. After Rabban Gamliel's demise the world became
weaker and
people started studying Torah while sitting. This is what is
meant
that "ever since Rabban Gamliel died the Torah's honor was
annulled."
Several difficulties must be resolved: 1) If feebleness
descended
on the world in all areas, why was it especially felt in
studying
Torah? 2) Why does difficulty in standing detract from the
Torah's
honor? 3) Is difficulty standing considered an actual
sickness? 4)
The gemora (Sotah 49a) mentions certain matters
that
have been annulled because of the death of tzaddikim,
such
as hasmodoh when Ben Azzai died, and people who can
truly say
droshos when Ben Zoma died, and anshei ma'aseh
when
R' Chanina ben Dosa died. We understand from the
gemora that
this was a spiritual drop, not a physical one, but from what
the gemora
tells us about when Rabban Gamliel died, that people were not
strong
enough to stand while studying Torah, we apparently see that
a physical
weakness set in.
We can explain that what happened after Rabban Gamliel's
death
was also a spiritual decline. Until his death everyone stood
while
studying Torah since they sensed the Torah's importance and
understood
that to honor it a person should exert himself and stand.
After Rabban
Gamliel's death people did not esteem Torah to the same
degree and
were considered sick and weak only in this regard.
HaKodosh Boruch Hu only lets His Shechina dwell on a
person
who is strong (Nedorim 38a). The proof is from Moshe
Rabbenu,
who held the two luchos although they were very heavy.
According
to our usual understanding of the Torah weakening a person's
strength,
it is impossible to explain how Moshe was not weakened after
studying
Torah for forty days and nights on Mount Sinai. Furthermore
why, in
order to merit the indwelling of the Shechina, is
someone required
to have tremendous physical strength, which seems a
contradiction
to studying Torah?
Actually, as we have mentioned above, physical strength is
not
at all incongruent with studying Torah. Torah weakens the
strength
of someone who studies it only in relation to matters not
connected
to Torah. It is only for other concerns that he has become
weak, since
he does not want to use his strength for them.
"The Torah was given to Yisroel because they are azin
. . . If the Torah had not been given to Yisroel no nation
could withstand
them" (Beitzah 25b). Rashi explains that the Torah
weakens
their power and humbles their heart.
Was the Torah given to Yisroel only so that they would not
overthrow
the non-Jews? Moreover, if azin means "strong," are
those Jews who are not engaged in Torah study and have not
been weakened
indeed more powerful than non- Jews?
The above gemora adds that Resh Lokish said that three
kinds of azin exist in the world: Yisroel among the
nations,
a dog among the animals, and a chicken among the birds. If
azin
means physical might, are not other animals and birds
stronger than
dogs and chickens?
This is proof that azin means "stubborn" (the Maharsha
explains azin in the same way). Klal Yisroel
have the
special attribute that when they want a certain thing they
exert themselves
to the utmost to attain it. No nation can withstand this
might, not
even those stronger physically than they. With earnest desire
one
can overcome all. "Where there is a will; there is a way."
Chazal, when they tell us that the Torah was given to Yisroel
because they are azin, mean that to succeed in Torah
one must
be unyielding, that it is required to exert all of one's
power to
engage in constant Torah study. Other nations do not have to
fear
Yisroel since Yisroel use their stubbornness only for Torah
and not
to wage wars. The Torah weakens them, as Rashi comments,
since their
powers are directed to Torah and not to other matters.
Chazal (Zevochim 116a) teach us about the
posuk,
"Hashem sat enthroned at the flood; and He sits enthroned as
King
forever" (Tehillim 29:10) that all of the nations
gathered
around Bilaam the rosho when they heard the sound of
Matan
Torah, which spread from one end of the world to the
other. They
asked him whether a flood was about to engulf the world.
Bilaam answered:
"Hashem gives strength to His people" (v. 11), strength
meaning
Matan Torah, as Rashi explains, that the Torah is
Yisroel's
strength. Immediately they all started saying: "Hashem
blesses
His people with peace."
How can it be that the Torah is called strength; how can it
impart
strength to Yisroel as Rashi explains? On the contrary, the
Torah
weakens our physical strength. In addition, why did the
nations answer
"Hashem blesses His people with peace"? It is normal that
when one country acquires a powerful weapon its enemy
immediately
prepares for war, but when the nations heard that Yisroel
received
"strength" they were calmed and blessed Yisroel with
peace.
Before Yisroel received the Torah the other nations were
frightened
of them, since they are the most az of all nations.
With their
stubbornness they could overcome all other nations. But after
the
Jewish Nation received the Torah, they invested all their
strength
and vigor into studying Torah. Now the nations no longer had
to fear
that Yisroel might use their strength to fight other
nations.
When, each year, the time of receiving our Torah arrives, we
of
course resolve to strengthen ourselves in studying Torah and
fulfilling
Torah and mitzvos. Besides this chizuk, we should
better realize
the Torah's importance and utilize all of our latent powers
only to
labor over the Torah until we feel we have no more strength
and can
do nothing else.
HaRav Eliezer HaLevi Dunner is the rav of the Adas Yisroel
Kehilla
in the Ma'ayenei Hayeshua Hospital of Bnei Brak, and a member
of the
Shearis Yisroel Beis Din. The above is an edited translation
of a
drosho delivered in the Adas Yisroel Kehilla.
