As we know, all of Klal Yisroel accepted the Torah on
Shavuos. It was given to all of them, and not just to some
elite group. Everyone is invited — even required
— to study it to the best of his ability. One of the
highest and most prestigious callings in life is harbotzas
Torah — spreading Torah as far and as wide as
possible.
HaRav Moshe Feinstein (whose 20th yahrtzeit was in
Adar of this year) explains that the reason that we always
read Bamidbar right before Shavuos is to drive home
this lesson.
The counting is said to be uplifting: Se'u es rosh kol
addas Bnei Yisroel . . . — lift them up. In a
census, everyone is uplifted since all are counted as
absolute equals. Each person counts for one, and each person
should see his potential and achievements as being great.
This is the attitude with which one must approach Torah: that
the Torah was given to each and every one of us and we all
have the same obligation to study it and toil over it —
and to reach significant levels of achievement in Torah.
Reading Parshas Bamidbar is thus aimed to challenge
those who are discouraged from learning with intensity since
they feel that anyway they can not get too far in Torah
study. We must learn from the counting in Bamidbar
that everyone should aspire to a great portion in Torah.
(Dorash Moshe, Parshas Bamidbar)
The big "justified" distraction for many people from limud
Torah is study for the purposes of parnossoh.
Though certainly a concern for parnossoh is
legitimate, it is very easy to carry it too far and it can
be, in fact, the advice of reshoim (atzas reshoim)
referred to in the first chapter of Tehillim.
Rav Moshe explains that the reference to "advice of
reshoim" indicates that the subject is not the evil
itself but rather the advice given by evildoers that is
liable to lead its followers off the proper path. "And it
would seem," writes Rav Moshe, "that this refers to the way
many people who are genuinely faithful to Hashem and His
Torah and fulfill mitzvos, seek and worry about their
children even from a very young age, about how they will find
parnossoh."
This concern leads those people to stop or minimize learning
Torah, to become stuffed with outside learning (chochmos
chitzoniyos), and to associate with kofrim in the
pursuit of parnossoh — "until, by following this
advice, many become themselves reshoim. Happy is one
who has trust in Hashem yisborach Who nurtures and
sustains all, so that even when he is fully occupied with
Torah he will not lack for bread, as Yirmiyohu proved."
In these times of darkness it is sometimes hard to see and
feel the power and importance of Torah, but Shavuos is a time
in which it is more accessible than usual. It was on Shavuos
that Torah came down to the world decisively and since then
the entire Creation — from Wall Street to Red Square to
Beijing and everywhere else — depends on Torah for its
very existence. "The truth is, without any doubt whatsoever,
that if the entire world — from one end to the other
— were void chas vesholom for even a moment of
our effort and contemplation of Torah, in a moment all the
worlds would be destroyed, both the upper and lower [worlds],
and they would be null and void chas vesholom. And the
bounty of their light or its being minimized chas
vesholom, is all according to the way and how much we are
occupied with it [Torah]. . . . if we seize onto the holy
Torah with all our strength, as is proper, we will inherit
eternal life and draw from its supernal roots that reach
higher than all worlds — additional kedushoh,
brochoh, and a great light that will reach all the worlds
. . . " (Nefesh HaChaim, Shaar 4, Perek 11).
