Toiling In Torah

By: R’ Mordechai Young

My father, Dr. Baruch Young, z’l, worked with a heart of gold when he cared for his patients. He always wanted to share Torah and joy with the people around him. Once a patient asked him, “Dr. Young, how do you know so much Torah?” [He said this because my father was an Israeli and didn’t look like a rav.]

My father responded with his usual wit: “A baby is taught the whole Torah in their mother by a malach. Before being born, the malach taps the baby on the lip, which gives us the little indentation on the top of the lip, but as a result, the baby forgets all his Torah. The malach forgot to tap me on the lip, so I remember it!” The person was impressed. He left, but soon remembered and said, “Wait, Dr. Young, if that’s the case, why do you also have an indentation?”

This week is a double parashah: Behar and Bechukosai. In the beginning of Parashas Bechukosai(Vayikra 26:3), it states, “Im bechukosai teleichu”—if you go in my decrees. Rashi teaches on these words that you should toil in Torah: “she’tee’he’yu ameillim b’Torah,” that you should be laboring in the Torah, indicating that a person must sweat in his effort to study and master Torah learning.

In the sefer “Ayelet Hashachar,” there is a question: Why doesn’t the Torah first teach us to learn Torah then mention the obligation to toil in it? We see the Gemara Sanhedrin 99b quotes the pasuk in Iyov (5:7): “A person was born to toil.” The Ayelet Hashachar continues with the Gemara explaining we were born to toil in Torah. He answers that certainly there is an obligation to learn Torah and do mitzvos. The Mishnah in Pirkei Avos states: “L’fum tzara agra,” that the reward is in proportion to the exertion (Avos 5:23). In other words, the harder you toil, the greater will be your reward. Here in our parashah, we learn that a person cannot reach any level in spirituality without toil. Why does it state teleichu? (Im bechukosai teleichu), i.e. you will go? The Gur Aryeh, zt’l, answers that just as a person goes from place to place traveling, so too in his learning, by toiling in it and going over the matter over and over, so too will you gain the depth of the matter, the clarity you seek. So, it states, “teleichu,” you shall go.

In Mishnas Rabbi Aharon by Rabbi Aharon Kotler, zt’l, he quotes the Gemara Menachot 7a, which says that Rabbi Avimi forgot the learning of Gemara Menachot, that his learning was “uprooted” for him, but he knew his student, Rav Chisda, would help him recall his learning. The Gemara asks: If Rav Chisda was in fact Rabbi Avimi’s student, why didn’t Avimi send for Rav Chisda since it’s kavod HaTorah for the student to travel to the Rebbi? The Gemara responds that Avimi thought that this would be more helpful in this matter, i.e., that by exerting the effort to travel to his pupil in order to learn from him, he would better retain his studies. Rashi explains the Gemara in Megillah 6a teaches that if someone tells you, “I toiled in learning and found success,” you should believe him. If he says he did not toil and was successful, don’t believe him. You have to toil. And Avimi held that his travel was part of the toil and he would see more success. Rav Kotler said that it’s not just the toil while you learn, even the effort to travel helps. Through this maybe we can see our pasuk is hinting “teleichu,” go, even the travel helps. Every effort brings berachah.

The Meforshim wonder why the pasuk states chok (bechukosai), which is used for a mitzvah we don’t understand, such as the parah adumah. Some wonder why the Gemara above in Megillah taught that if someone works hard at learning, he will find success. What’s the novel idea? Of course, if he works hard, he will be successful. They answer that the amount of effort he puts in doesn’t equal the success he finds. He is blessed with more success than the effort he puts in, so it states he finds success because he got extra berachah. So maybe here it hints to that by stating a chok, we don’t see how people are successful at the level they are at based on their efforts, it doesn’t make sense naturally. Only with Hashem’s berachah it adds up, so it states “chok.” We don’t understand how we become successful.

In Pirkei Avos 2:9, Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai teaches that if you learned a lot of Torah, don’t take credit for it yourself because you were born to learn. Why didn’t he say if you “toiled” a lot in Torah don’t give yourself credit, as we quoted the Gemara above (Sanhedrin), that we were born to toil? As my father related, we know a baby inside his mother is taught the whole Torah by a malach and before being born, the malach taps the baby on the lip and he forgets it. So, maybe Rabban Ben Zakkai was saying that if you learned a lot, don’t take credit since as a baby he learned the whole thing, so what was gained? That’s why you can’t take credit, as Rabbi Avraham HaLevi Shorr, shlita, explains in his sefer on Avos, “Ha’Lekach ve’Halibuv,” that’s why the Gemara in Megillah taught that if you toil, you will find all the Torah the baby lost when he was born, but can reclaim after much toil. Based on this, maybe we can answer in Pirkei Avos why he didn’t state if you toiled a lot, don’t take credit because you can give yourself a pat on the back for the toil. The result of how much you learn is up to Hashem. Don’t take credit.

We learn that toil brings success. Every time learning is difficult, it will eventually bring good results. And not just toil in the learning, any toil connected to Torah brings berachah.

Have a great Shabbos! 

R’ Mordechai Young can be reached for comments at [email protected].