These divrei Torah were adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissocher Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Tapes on the weekly portion: #1293 – A Tragic Holocaust Shailah. Good Shabbos!

My thoughts this week all revolve around the opening words of Parshas Bechukosai:

The parsha begins (Vayikra 26:3) with the words “Im bechukosai teleichu” (If you go in my decrees). Rashi at the beginning of the parsha notes that these words cannot refer to simple mitzvah observance because that is covered by the continuation of the pasuk – “v’es mitzvosai tishmeru” (and My commandments you shall keep). Rather, Rashi says that the words indicate “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.

My first thought focuses on the word teleichu. Why is the verb teleichu (you go) associated with intense learning?

Rav Meir Shapiro, the Lubliner Rav, founded the famous Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. The entrance exam to the yeshiva was knowing 300 blatt of Gemara by heart. The smicha exam at the yeshiva was 1000 blatt of Gemara by heart. I don’t know how many bochrim today would be accepted to such a yeshiva. Rav Meir Shapiro also founded the now widely-adopted Daf Yomi program. Besides everything else, he was a master darshan (a tremendous speaker).

For the building dedication of Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin, Rav Meir Shapiro had a pasuk engraved on the walls of the Yeshiva building: “Go my children (Lechu banim), listen to me, I will teach you the fear of Hashem.” (Tehillim 34:12) The obvious question on that pasuk is why does it say Lechu banim – Go my children? Shouldn’t it say Bo’u banim... Come my children? Rav Meir Shapiro explained that the proof of whether a person has succeeded in learning – whether he became a talmid chochom or a yareh shamayim or a ben Torah – is not while he is in a yeshiva. The proof is after he has left the yeshiva. If the yeshiva made an impression on him such that he is a ben Torah, an honest Jew, and a Jew who fears Heaven – even after he has left the yeshiva, that proves that the yeshiva has done its job in properly educating him.

As long as a person remains in yeshiva, the peer pressure and social pressure may be keeping him in check. People do not like to stand-out, so they toe the line. But when they are out of yeshiva, then the proof is in the pudding. That is what the pasuk means when it says: Go my sons…. “After you leave the yeshiva, I want to see if I can in fact recognize the type of person my yeshiva is supposed to produce through your behavior.”

Rav Meir Shapiro added that this is what limud haTorah is all about. Limud haTorah is about the impression Torah makes on the person and how it forms him. Does he become a different person? Therefore, “Lechu banim (Go out, my children).”

Based on this observation, the Tolner Rebbe says as follows. Perhaps this explains why the pasuk at the beginning of our parsha also uses the verb “Bechukosai teleichu” in reference to toiling in Torah study. Perhaps it is because a person’s essence is recognizable when he is already teleichu – on the way, when he is already “out there in the world.” The true mark of the impact a person’s Torah study made upon him is how he acts in the business world and how he acts in the secular world when he is not within the four walls of the beis hamedrash. That is why the pasuk at the beginning of our parsha uses a verb indicating being on the road rather than a verb such as tishma’u (you shall listen) or tavinu (you shall understand).

The Tolner Rebbe then mentions a beautiful story involving the Pnei Menachem (Rav Pinchas Menachem Alter, the seventh Gerer Rebbe, 1926-1996). When the Pnei Menachem was a very little boy, his father – the Imrei Emes (the fourth Gerer Rebbe) – taught him the siddur. The Imrei Emes taught him how to daven and the proper sequence of the prayers throughout the siddur. This was before the young child was even ready to study Chumash or Mishnayos. When he got to Krias Shma sh’al hamita, the Imrei Emes explained to his son that this was the prayer recited before going to bed at night. The little Pnei Menachem asked his father “Why do we say Krias Shma sh’al hamita BEFORE we get into bed if it is called Krias Shma sh’al hamitah (literally — the reading of Shma upon the bed)? “Al hamitah” implies, he asked, that a person should say it when he is already IN bed!

The Imrei Emes answered his little son: Krias Shma represents acceptance of the yoke of Heaven. A person cannot accept the yoke of Heaven while stretched out in bed. That does not work. Therefore, it needs to be said before you actually lie down. The young son persisted: then why is it CALLED Krias Shma sh‘al hamita (upon the bed), it should be called Krias Shma sh’lifnei hamita? The Imrei Emes told him it is because when a person actually lays down in bed is when we see what affect the past day’s learning had on him. Even the “al ha’mita” – the sleep – should become a different sleep. The sleep itself should be infused with kedusha because its purpose is for you to be strong and be well and fortified to serve Hashem properly the next day.

Lechu banim shimu li – Go my children, listen to me: When you are on the way, when you are driving, that is when we see what kind of Jew you really are. Im bechukosai teleichu – in the going (haleecha) – we recognize what a person’s toiling in Torah has accomplished.

Focusing on The Opening Words of the Parsha – Part 2: Bechukosai

My second observation reflects on the second word in the pasuk: Im bechukosai teleichu – If in my decrees you go (upon which Rashi comments, as mentioned before, “you should toil in Torah study”). There is an obvious question that many commentaries ask. In fact, in the beginning of this week’s parsha, the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh provides 42 different explanations of “Im bechukosai teleichu – she’tee’heyu 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.

A chok (decree) is a law whose reason is unknown. Examples of chukim include shantnez, chazir, neveilah, and Parah Adumah. However, the mitzvah of studying Torah is not a chok! It is a davar seechlee – a very rational commandment. Torah study is an intellectual pursuit. It seems quite incongruent that out of all the words to use to mean “you should toil in Torah study,” the Torah uses the word chukosai (my decrees). A far more appropriate wording would be “Im b’mitzvosai teleichu” or “Im b’mishpatai teleichua“, rather than “Bechukosai teleichu!”

The Beis HaLevi gives us a clue to answer this question in Parshas Mishpatim. When Klal Yisrael, said “na’aseh v’nishma” (we will do and we will listen), chazal say that they merited many spiritual rewards and acquisitions. The Beis HaLevi explains that when they said “na’aseh” (we will keep the Mitzvos), that obviously included learning Torah because it is necessary to learn what is in the Torah in order to know what to do. We can’t keep Shabbos unless we learn Hilchos Shabbos. We can’t put on Tefillin unless we learn Hilchos Tefillin. Thus, included in the “na’aseh” is learning Torah. We need to know what to do. Why then do we need “nishma“? It can’t be that we need “nishma” because we need to know what to do. We already know that based on “na’aseh.” “Nishma” means we want to learn more, even though we already know what to do.

When someone knows how to drive, he no longer needs to read the driving manual. Our cell phones come with detailed manuals. Once we learn how to use a phone or any other appliance, do we ever look at the manual again? What kind of endeavor is it that a person knows what to do, has been doing it for his entire life and he is still learning it? That is the “chok” of limud haTorah. I learn for no other reason than learning’s sake. Learning itself has incredible value.

Do you think that Rav Chaim Kanievsky needed to review Hilchos Shabbos or Hilchos Tefillin? He knew it by heart! So why did he need to finish the entire Torah every single year? It is because we are supposed to learn even if we already know what we are supposed to do. This is the “decree” of Im b’chukosai teileichu.

The sefer Avir Yakov presents the following mashal (parable): Someone is taking a walk and sees his friend drive by. The friend pulls over and shouts out the window “Can I give you a ride? I am headed in your direction anyway.” The pedestrian responds, “No. I am walking because I am supposed to walk. I have no specific need to reach a particular destination. I merely walk upon my doctor’s orders – cardio, weight-loss, all the good things in life!” This is the equivalent of “Im b’chukosai teleichu – she’tee’he’yu ameillim b’Torah” We do not study merely for the knowledge. We study because this is what the Almighty orders us to do.

When I first came to Ner Israel High School, more than fifty years ago, not knowing any better, I figured I would walk into the Rosh Yeshiva – Rav Ruderman’s office and give him a ‘shalom aleichem‘. I came into the office wearing my cap. The Rosh Yeshiva looked at me and must have wondered, “What does this kid want?”

This memory that sticks in my mind until this very day includes being struck by what the Rosh Yeshiva was doing. The yeshiva was learning Gittin that zman. The Rosh Yeshiva was sitting there shuckling over his Gemara, learning Gittin daf daled. Do you think Rav Ruderman, zt”l, needed to review Gittin daf daled? How many times had he learned Maseches Gittin? How many times had he said shiurim on Maseches Gittin? So why was he learning Maseches Gittin? “Im b’chukosai teleichu.”

That is one pshat why Torah study is referred to as a chok. The other pshat that I would like to share is from Rav Simcha Zissel Brody, who explained that it is because of the “magic-like” power of Torah. Torah study can change people. There is no other endeavor like it. Studying chemistry or mathematics, etc. does not change a person, but Torah does. That is “Im b’chukosai teleichu” – the inexplicable facet of Torah’s ability to transform people.

I recently spoke in Lakewood at a siyum on Seder Nashim. A couple of months prior I was at an event where I found myself sitting next to a self-described “Modern Orthodox” Jew. We were sitting at this dinner and we started schmoozing with one another. He told me about his experience with Daf Yomi. He described the incredible impact it made on him. Knowing that I had to speak in Lakewood, I again got in touch with him and asked if he would write-up for me what he had told me that night at the dinner. This is what he sent to me and this is what I said in Lakewood. I believe it is a succinct summary of the power of “Im b’chukosai teleichu.”

As I was moving into my thirties, I found myself floating through life, being less serious about and less connected than I should be to my Yiddishkeit. While I was certainly a regular ‘shul goer’ on Shabbos, it had been years since I had made any regular effort to attend minyan during the week. Other than occasionally learning with one of my sons to study for a test that he was having in school, I had not opened up a sefer in years. Basically, I had become an Orthodox Jew who was feeling pretty disconnected from meaningful Yiddishkeit and from Hashem.

Then I went to the Siyum HaShas in Met-Life Stadium several years ago. I decided to start Daf Yomi study – learning on my own. I went through Maseches Brochos and then Maseches Shabbos got tough for me. I was getting less committed to it and then Maseches Eruvin was a knock-out punch. I stopped learning Daf Yomi.

A while later I met my uncle, who convinced me that the only way to study Daf Yomi was in the context of a Daf Yomi shiur. “If you rely on doing it yourself, it isn’t going to happen!” So I decided I would go to a 5:30 am Daf Yomi shiur.

I resumed Daf Yomi by Eruvin 50a. Daf Yomi literally changed my life for the better in so many ways. Before long, I started making an effort to daven Mincha and Maariv every day. I soon found myself in the local sefarim store holding a copy of the Ramchal’s Derech Hashem. I was inclined to give it a shot some 25 years after I last touched it. I was blown away by that sefer and couldn’t put it down. One thing led to another and I started to grow in my Yiddishkeit and started to feel a more serious and meaningful kesher with Hashem. For me, it all started with Daf Yomi – the concept that every single day, regardless of whatever daily challenges and frustrations come my way, I could set everything else aside and find menuchas hanefesh in the Gemara. It is an amazing thing.

That is what Rav Simcha Zissel means when he speaks about the treasured dimension of Torah study to expand and elevate the soul of those who engage in it. Torah has this magical ability to transform a person. That is what the fellow wrote: “It changed my life!” A fellow who hadn’t picked up a sefer in years, now cannot put the Derech Hashem down!

Do you appreciate what he is saying? The Derech Hashem is not one of the easiest seforim to study. Daf Yomi not only changed his life, it changed his wife’s life and the lives of his children as well. That is the chok of Torah – the power to expand and elevate all those who diligently study it.

Transcribed by David Twersky; Jerusalem [email protected]

Edited by Dovid Hoffman; Baltimore, MD [email protected]

This week’s write-up is adapted from the hashkafa portion of Rabbi Yissochar Frand’s Commuter Chavrusah Series on the weekly Torah portion. A listing of the halachic portions for Parshas Behar/Bechukotai is provided below:

• # 011 – Rationing Medical Care
• # 012 – Can Teachers Strike?
• # 054 – Life Insurance: The Torah Policy
• # 055 – Candle Lighting & Havdalah: How Early & How Late?
• # 097 – “Ribis” Problems of Interest for the Jew in a Mercantile Society
• # 098 – “Cheremei Tzibur”: A Ban on Living in Germany?
• # 145 – Kidney Donations: Endangering Oneself to Save Another
• # 192 – Making Shabbos Early
• # 282 – The Physician’s Obligation to Heal
• # 328 – Sh’mita and the Heter Mechira
• # 372 – Using Shuls As A Shortcut
• # 416 – Supporting Jewish Merchants
• # 460 – The Obligation of Checking One’s Teffilin
• # 504 – Lag B’Omer
• # 548 – Marrying for Money
• # 592 – Ribis and the Non-Jew
• # 636 – The Kedusha of the Ezras Noshim
• # 680 – Is Ribis Ever Permitted?
• # 724 – The Chazzan Who Changes His Mind
• # 768 – Dos and Don’ts of Treating a Lender
• # 812 – How Much Is That Tiffany Necklace?
• # 856 – Distractions When Performing A Mitzvah
• # 900 – Oy! My Tefillin Are Pasul
• # 945 – Overcharging: How Much Is Too Much?
• # 987 – Limud HaTorah – Must You Understand What You Are Learning?
• # 988 – Bentching – Making Sure You Eat and Enjoy
• #1031 – Sh’mitta – How Did the Farmers Survive?
• #1032 – The Child Molester – What Must We Do?
• #1076 – Cheating in Business It May Be More Asur Than You Think
• #1118 – What Are You/Aren’t You Allowed To Talk About on Shabbos?
• #1119 – Davening in a Rented Movie Theater–Is There A Problem?
• #1160 – The Mahram of Padua, The Ramo, and l’Havdil the Pope
• #1204 – The Friend Who Reneged on their Power Ball Agreement
• #1205 – The Case of the Women of Vienna and the Incredible Response of the Rabonim
• #1249 – Heter Meah Rabbonim: The Rarely Used Sanction of Polygamy
• #1292 – The Price of Fish for Shabbos Went Sky High – What Can the Community Do?
• #1293 – A Tragic Holocaust Shailah
• #1336 – The Tochacha of Parshas Bechukosai – Should It Be Avoided?
• #1380 – Can One Be Obligated to Bentch Even If He Didn’t Eat?
• #1424 – “Thank You Very Much for the Loan.” – Is That Ribis?
• #1425 – Going to Doctors – Not As Simple Hashkafically As You May Think
• #1468 – Going to the Mikveh During the Corona Pandemic or Other Difficult Times
• #1511 – Onaas Devorim: Saying Hurtful Words to Open Up Someone’s Eyes?
• #1554 – I am 55 Years Old and Now I Find Out That My Tefilin Were Never Kosher
• #1555 – Menus on Shabbos and Yom Tov – Is There a Problem? Thoughts on 40 Years of the Thursday Night Shiur

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