After Matan Torah: Now Is the Time to Strengthen Torah Study! | The Wonderful Idea I Heard from the Rebbe

00:00 There’s a well-known question people ask: Whenever we celebrate something, every holiday, we’re always told that this holiday is the most important one. This is especially common in Chassidus. When we study maamarim about Pesach, they explain that nothing surpasses Pesach. It’s the greatest, loftiest, most wonderful holiday. Then Shavuos arrives, and we study the maamarim and sichos that explain that Shavuos is the pinnacle, the most wonderful thing, the greatest holiday. And the same goes for Sukkos, Rosh Hashanah, and Yom Kippur. So what’s the truth? Is this holiday really the greatest? How can every holiday be the greatest, the pinnacle, the most wonderful? The answer, also explained in Chassidus, is that each holiday has its own unique quality, something special that we receive on that holiday. In that particular respect, what we receive on that holiday is the pinnacle. Or, as it’s often explained, each holiday is like a gateway. A king’s palace has several gateways, and each one leads you to a special place, to a particular connection with the king. So every holiday is a gateway—a unique gateway through which we connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the King of kings. Take Pesach, for example. This is the holiday when a Jew receives freedom, Geulah, the Exodus from Egypt. It’s the gateway through which we connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the realm of Geulah and freedom. From Pesach, a Jew draws the strength for the entire year to break free of all kinds of exiles and all kinds of things that interfere with our service of Hashem. In that respect, Pesach is the most wonderful holiday. It’s the gateway through which we enter an atmosphere of Geulah and freedom. Shavuos is the holiday of the Giving of the Torah. That means that on Shavuos we received the Torah, and from there we

02:26 draw vitality for Torah study throughout the year. In the matter of receiving the Torah, Shavuos is the gateway, the pinnacle. It’s the most wonderful connection to Torah study. Nothing is loftier, and from it we draw the strength to study Torah all year long. So when Shavuos arrives, a Jew takes upon himself the yoke of Torah. As it says in a number of sichos, when a Jew receives the Torah anew on Shavuos, he should take upon himself the yoke of Torah and say: “Hakadosh Boruch Hu, I have received the Torah, and I take it upon myself to study it with renewed vitality, with renewed enthusiasm—to receive the Torah anew.” Because in truth, as it says in Tanya and in the books of Chassidus, a new light is drawn down each and every year. It isn’t the same thing. It is, so to speak, a new Giving of the Torah, and it gives us the strength to renew ourselves, to gain freshness and renewed vitality, and to renew our connection with the Torah. And the decision a Jew makes on Shavuos to take upon himself the yoke of Torah, to devote himself to Torah study, must also be put into practice. That means that on Shavuos we need to resolve to add to our Torah study, to add Torah classes—individual study and group classes—to study Torah. Whatever I’ve studied until now, I should add more time to Torah study. If I’ve been studying, I should increase the amount, improve the quality, study with greater analysis and depth. A Jew always needs to add more and more to his Torah study. The question we want to understand and discuss today is: Why is Torah study so important? We see statements of our Sages, and we see in the Midrashim and other books, a very strong emphasis on the great importance of Torah study and setting aside regular times for it. And sometimes the question arises: Why so much emphasis? What is so special about studying

04:47 Torah that it is given such great value? After all, the main thing is action. Pirkei Avos says: “Study is not the main thing, but action.” The Gemara says: “Study is great because it leads to action.” The greatness of study is that it leads to action. So if action is the main thing, then that’s what matters—mitzvos and good deeds. But we see that this isn’t all there is to it: There is a special emphasis specifically on Torah study. Not only that, but it’s emphasized that we study Torah not just to know what to do. If that were the case, we’d study halachah and be done with it. But no. We’re told to study Torah even when it isn’t for the sake of knowing what to do—the deeds that must be done, the halachah. There is value in studying Torah for its own sake: “To magnify Torah and make it glorious.” As our Sages say, we should study Torah even on subjects that have no practical halachic relevance nowadays, and even subjects that have no practical halachic relevance at all—things that will never happen. A Jew studies them: “Expound it and receive reward.” Torah study for the sake of Torah study. The question is: What exactly does that mean? What is the explanation? What does it mean for us to study Torah for the sake of studying Torah? What is the point of it? We’ll explain this based on the Alter Rebbe’s wonderful explanation in Tanya. The Alter Rebbe explains the unique value of Torah study, something found specifically in Torah study and not in the fulfillment of mitzvos. This subject also has a special connection to Shavuos, based on what the Gemara says. The Gemara in Pesachim tells us about Rav Yosef, one of the great Amoraim. Rav Yosef would prepare a special meal: he would slaughter an animal and eat special meat specifically on Shavuos—more so than on Pesach or Sukkos. It was specifically on Atzeres, Shavuos. So the Gemara tells us about Rav

07:01 Yosef, who would ask for a meal of special meat to be prepared, more than on any other holiday. They asked him why specifically on Shavuos. He answered: “If not for this day, which made the difference, how many Yosefs would there be in the marketplace?” Rashi explains that Rav Yosef meant: If not for Shavuos, this special day on which we received the Torah, and the fact that I study Torah because of it, then—as Rashi says—I would not have been elevated. Torah elevates me. Without it, there are plenty of people named Yosef in the marketplace. I would have been like any of those Yosefs. Through Torah study, I grew and was elevated. The Torah has a special effect on me, and that’s why I celebrate this day in a special way. Now a simple question arises: What exactly is Rav Yosef telling us? On a very superficial reading, it sounds as though Rav Yosef is boasting about his Torah study. G-d forbid that we should think this is what Rav Yosef meant. Was he trying to compare himself with another Yosef in the marketplace? What exactly is the message? Why does he specifically emphasize his own name? There are so many people in the marketplace—why does he say, “How many Yosefs are there in the marketplace?” This entire statement of our Sages is puzzling and difficult to understand. I had the privilege of being with the Rebbe on Shavuos in 5749, and I heard the wonderful explanation the Rebbe gave then of this statement of our Sages. It ties in closely with what the Alter Rebbe explains in Tanya about the unique value of Torah study. We’ll reflect on this, and it will give us special vitality and a special desire for this whole matter of setting aside regular times for Torah study.

09:15 Torah with particular diligence and devotion—this is something we especially need to take from Shavuos. The Alter Rebbe explains to us in Tanya: There is the observance of mitzvos, and there is Torah study. It is true that Torah study is also one of the mitzvos, but nevertheless, as we said, Torah study has a value of its own. The Alter Rebbe asks: What is the difference between Torah study and the observance of mitzvos? Through a mitzvah, a Jew connects with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We know that the word mitzvah comes both from the word for “command” and from the word tzavsa, “togetherness.” In other words, a mitzvah is a command from Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Hakadosh Boruch Hu commands us to put on tefillin, wear tzitzis, affix a mezuzah, and eat kosher. And when we perform a mitzvah, we connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Every mitzvah is a connection. The explanation of why a mitzvah creates a connection appears in a number of places. We can see it in physical life: When someone very exalted—a wise man, a tzaddik, a king—asks an ordinary person to do something for him, asks him a favor, even something trivial and small, that command, that instruction, that request, creates a relationship. As long as there was no command or request, there was no relationship. The exalted person and the ordinary person are so far apart that sometimes the distance between them is so great, it is as though the ordinary person does not even exist in the exalted person’s world. What do you and I have to do with each other? The moment there is a command, that command creates a relationship, a connection. For Hakadosh Boruch Hu, the King of kings, is infinite and without limit, and of course He is utterly beyond comparison to us. Who are we, what are we, compared with Hakadosh Boruch Hu? But the moment Hakadosh Boruch Hu commands us and says, “I ask you to put on tefillin. I ask you to affix a mezuzah, to perform a mitzvah,” then

11:34 the mitzvah is tzavsa: it creates a connection, a relationship between the Creator and the created being. What could be more wonderful than that? So when we perform a mitzvah, we connect with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But here is the wonderful quality Torah study has over the observance of mitzvos. When a Jew performs a mitzvah, he is carrying out what Hakadosh Boruch Hu asks of him. There is the mitzvah, and there is the Jew who performs it. He performs an action that expresses the King’s will. By carrying out that action, I fulfill the King’s will and give Him pleasure, and that creates a connection. So the connection is, so to speak, between two separate things that are brought together by my action. I do what He asks of me, and that creates our relationship. But we remain two separate beings. There is the master and the servant, the king and the people, the one who commands and the one who is commanded. I fulfill His will and thereby connect with Him, but I remain a separate being. What is special about Torah study? When a person studies Torah, the wisdom of Torah is the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, and the person’s own intellect—his mind—engages with it. When I study a halachah in the Torah, my intellect, my mind, unites with the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. Here the union is not merely two separate things coming together. My whole mind is now filled with Hashem’s wisdom. This physical, material mind now grasps, understands, and comprehends a halachah, a line of reasoning, an explanation of the wisdom and will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. After all, the Torah is the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. “The Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are all one.” The Zohar says

14:05 that the Torah and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are one. He and His wisdom are one. When Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us the Torah, He took His wisdom, His infinite wisdom, and clothed it in the Torah’s halachos, its laws, and its reasoning. When a Jew studies the wisdom of Torah with his physical mind, a deep inner connection is formed: the human intellect unites, so to speak, with the Divine intellect, and they become one. The Alter Rebbe says in Tanya: “It is a wondrous union, the like of which, or anything comparable to it, is not found at all in the physical world: to become one and united from every side and angle.” There is no greater bond or connection than the one formed when a Jew studies Torah. The person’s intellect is uplifted and elevated. What is in my mind now? The wisdom of Torah. They are one. When I perform a mitzvah, I carry out an action in accordance with the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. But the person is in one place, while Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, commands him. They are like two separate things: he does what Hashem wants of him, but he remains on the outside. In Torah study, however, the person and the wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu unite and merge; they become one single reality. There is no union like it, no other kind of unity like this. This union exists only in Torah study, and that is the wonderful thing that happens when a Jew studies Torah. Especially when we have the privilege of studying in depth. There is superficial study, where what is learned remains somewhat external to the person. But the more analytical and deeper the study is—the more I try to understand, delve into it, and work at it—the more my intellect and the intellect of Torah, the intellect and wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu, so to speak, become one single reality. And this is what our Sages tell us. The Zohar says that when a Jew studies Torah, a connection is formed: “The Jewish people, the Torah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu

16:38 are all one.” The Jew, the Torah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu become one single reality. It is something wonderful, without parallel anywhere else. And so we return to the story of Rav Yosef. This is what Rav Yosef wants to say. True, when a Jew performs mitzvos, he forms a connection with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When a Jew performs mitzvos, those mitzvos are the will of Hakadosh Boruch Hu in this world. We are in this world, the physical world, and here we are meant to take things from the marketplace. This is what we meant by “How many Yosefs are there in the marketplace?” A person is in the marketplace. The marketplace represents this whole vast world. You go to a store and buy things with money. You have to pay to buy meat for the festival. You have to buy tefillin. You have to buy tzitzis. You have to buy a shofar. We have to pay for each of these things, buy them, and use physical, material things from this world. And when I perform a mitzvah, I make the marketplace, the physical world, into a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. A wonderful thing. What could be more wonderful than that? But it is still in the marketplace, in the world; from the world, we make a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. When a Jew studies Torah, however, he rises above the world. He has the wonderful ability and privilege, during his study, to be in an entirely different place. The Torah elevates me and makes my mind, at this moment, a vessel capable of receiving the wondrous wisdom of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. I have been uplifted! And this is what Rav Yosef is saying, specifically emphasizing his name, Yosef. Yosef is related to the word meaning “to add,” the Rebbe says. So—adding is the point of Torah and mitzvos. Hakadosh Boruch Hu brought us into this world to add something. There is the world as Hakadosh Boruch Hu created it,

18:55 And we have the power of Matan Torah: Hakadosh Boruch Hu gave us the ability to add holiness to the world, to add light to the world, to make the world a holy, G-dly world. We do that through all of Torah and mitzvos. But there is also “Yosef in the marketplace”—Yosef who is out in the marketplace, observing Torah and mitzvos there. That, too, is something wonderful and important: to be out in the world and make the physical world a dwelling place for Hakadosh Boruch Hu. We do that through every physical mitzvah a Jew performs. But beyond that, when Matan Torah comes, Rav Yosef, the great teacher, calls his students and asks them: Let’s prepare a special meal for this festival. Why? “If not for this day that brought it about”—if not for this day, because of which “I learned much Torah,” as Rashi says, “and was uplifted.” There is a special kind of elevation found only in Torah study, through which I can rise above the world. Torah lifts me to an entirely different place, above the world, and unites me with the Giver of the Torah as one. “Yisroel, the Torah, and Hakadosh Boruch Hu are all one.” Through Torah, a Jew unites with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in such a wondrous union. No mitzvah can compare with that. So when Shavuos comes, it’s true that on Shavuos we received all of Torah and mitzvos. But on the day of Matan Torah, the time of the giving of our Torah, there is a special emphasis on Torah study specifically. On Shavuos, a Jew resolves, as we said earlier, to increase his Torah study. The Rebbe spoke about this on Shavuos, and in the years when I merited to be with the Rebbe, the Rebbe always called for it: Shavuos must bring us the resolve, the vitality, the freshness, and the strength to renew ourselves in Torah study, to set fixed times for Torah. And setting fixed times for Torah doesn’t mean doing someone a favor—

21:16 It’s not about how many minutes I studied today. Rather, while I’m studying, my reality is that nothing else exists. It says that when a Jew studies Torah, it’s like Shabbos. On Shabbos, a person knows: no phones, no worldly matters, no business, no worries, nothing. It’s Shabbos. The moment I sit down to study Torah, it’s a case of “Torah is his occupation.” Nothing else exists in the world. As we said, Torah lifts us above the world. Right now there is nothing else—not even mitzvos. There is the Torah itself and the bond between a Jew and Hakadosh Boruch Hu that is formed in the moment of Torah study. When a Jew studies Torah this way, he unites with the Giver of the Torah in such a wondrous and special way. With that strength, we can free ourselves from all our worries and distractions, as our Sages tell us in Pirkei Avos: “No one is free except one who engages in Torah study.” A Jew who studies Torah knows that Torah study brings such a deep and wondrous union with Hakadosh Boruch Hu. He is truly free, truly released from all kinds of worries and distractions, as the Mishnah tells us in Pirkei Avos: “Whoever accepts upon himself the yoke of Torah is relieved of the yoke of government and the yoke of worldly concerns.” All those other things—government and worldly concerns, all the worries, distractions, and worldly matters that pursue us—when we accept upon ourselves the yoke of Torah, we rise above the world. That gives us the strength to become one with Hakadosh Boruch Hu in the most wondrous union. So, as we approach Shavuos, this is the time to inspire, encourage, and strengthen every one of us to have regular Torah classes, to strengthen our Torah study, to study with more careful analysis, greater depth, and greater breadth, to give it more time, to invest—

23:28 time in Torah study. As we said, we must study not only to know the halachah—that is extremely important—but also study Torah for the sake of studying Torah, to unite with the Giver of the Torah. This wondrous union is found only in Torah study, and we need to make the most of it: to invest in it, add to it, renew ourselves, and grow stronger. May Hakadosh Boruch Hu grant that this year be a year of Torah, and with Hashem’s help, may we merit to hear the new Torah from Moshiach’s mouth, the secrets of Torah that King Moshiach will reveal to us. May we merit to hear them speedily in our days, amen.