That You Should Labor in Torah - Parshat Bechukotai, from the Teachings of the Esteemed Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

Parshat Bechukotai, from the teachings of the esteemed tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

"If you walk in My statutes - that you should labor in Torah" (Rashi)

To escape the evil inclination is impossible, except through in-depth Torah study. "A man who dies in a tent" must toil in Torah, to give his life for it, not to study Torah out of laziness or comfort. True rest is only in Torah "and he saw that rest was good... and he bent his shoulder to bear" - the yoke of Torah (Rashi). True rest is the rest of the soul - through Torah study, the soul is polished, cleansed, all impurity is scraped away, cast out, and one merits the rest of the soul. A person must know that he is responsible for the acts of creation, every day he must recreate the world anew, the world operates according to those who study Torah, through Torah study the world is created, "for all the renewals of the acts of creation that Hashem renews every day continuously, all through the Torah... that on this day there are many rains and on this day there is dryness, and at this time it is cold and humid, etc., and other changes" (Likutei Halachot, Yibum 3) explains Rabbi Natan that you create the world, you create the world, you slept and a disaster happened, you dreamed, you spoke with someone during study and a disaster happened, a person must know there is no need to read newspapers and no need to know what is happening in the world, you only take an interest for a second in the world and a disaster occurs, a person must believe that the moment he is idle from Torah, a disaster happens! You must know that all the changes in the world go according to your Torah study, when a Jew studies then the whole world begins to love us, because all the nations sometimes love us and sometimes hate us, anyone who studied history knows that one year they love and one year they hate and want to destroy all the Jews, because everything depends on our Torah study, not on politicians or anything else. When a person studies Torah in-depth, and he puts his mind into the Torah, then he creates new worlds! Then he creates a new reality! Suddenly he has new laws! He has money to travel to Uman! And suddenly he has abundance in spirituality, abundance in material! Because he created a new world, he was in a world where he had no money, and now he is in a world where he already has money! Because a completely new world has already been created, because every moment a person creates new worlds, if a person studies Torah in-depth then he creates new worlds every second. The Rebbe brings in Torah 101 "And when a person transgresses, God forbid, then the transgression and the sin are engraved on his bones, as it is said (Ezekiel 32): 'And their sins shall be upon their bones' the Rebbe says you want to atone for your sins? You want to erase your sins? It's difficult! After all, your sins are engraved on your bones, the sins have made the bones broken, all the bones of a person are broken, it hurts here, it hurts there, it's all from the sins, every sin and sin makes an engraving on the bone, 'and their sins shall be upon their bones' the bones are hollow, they are already engraved, they have broken from the many engravings, if a person wants to reconnect the bones, to rebuild them, to get out of 'their sins upon their bones' it is only through in-depth study, to take exams, to be tested, to study Torah in-depth. Because for the defect, teshuvah does not help because the bones are already broken, already engraved, so what is the relevance of teshuvah? – Now one must continue new intellects into the bone, to renew the bone, and this is through in-depth Torah study, through the Torah you activate all the cells that have already been damaged, and weakened, and have already begun to wither, the study renews them, activates them, gives them intellect, the Torah builds you and makes you a new person. A person seeks advice on how to get out of bad traits, so he has Hitbodedut and Chatzot, and everything is wonderful and good, but if he does not have in-depth Torah study nothing will help him, because if a person does not study Torah in-depth then the main thing is missing from the book, then there is no mind at all, because the mind is received only from in-depth Torah study, so it's like a person does Hitbodedut but has no intellect at all, so there is nowhere to pour, Hashem wants to give him! Tomorrow he will pray with intention, and after the prayer he already runs to eat, he already ran here, he already ran to talk with his friend, they say about us he already removes the tefillin, he already talks with his friend, so Hashem says to him I want to give you after the prayer that you say a verse, that you say 2 or 3 halachot, that you learn a few lines from the Gemara, then you will have a wonderful mind and understand everything. Because after in prayer a person asks "and give in our hearts understanding to understand and to discern to listen to learn and to teach to keep and to do", and Hashem wants to give him now all the intellects, so here he already starts talking with his friend, and here he runs away before Aleinu, and he already removes the tefillin, and he is already outside, he is already talking, and already arguing, and already eating, and Hashem says I wanted to give you wonderful intellects where did you run away to?.. So the Rebbe says that without in-depth Torah study there is no intellect, and everything a person does then everything, everything lacks the main thing, because the main thing the Rebbe says is in-depth Torah study, and therefore the Rebbe says that the habit of study surpasses the fulfillment of all the mitzvot, the Rebbe brings in the study of Sefer HaMiddot section 33 "that the habit of study surpasses the fulfillment of all the mitzvot" one must get used to study, that we ask immediately in the morning "and accustom us in Your Torah" that we get used to Torah study, and the Rebbe says that getting used to it is not enough! So a person will say Gemara like Tehillim it is not enough, it needs "and accustom us"! Studying in-depth is called "and accustom us"! Take Rashba, and Ramban, and Ritva, and Shita Mekubetzet, and the Rosh, and the Rif, and the Ran, and the Nimukei Yosef, everything there is, and the Mahar"m Shif, and the Maharsha, and the Bach, and everything possible, and if the Maharsha is difficult for you take an easier commentator, but this is how your head must always be in-depth, always stand in-depth. So the Rebbe says that if a person stands in-depth, "that he delves and understands the wisdoms of the Torah, then he merits that the yoke of the kingdom and the yoke of worldly matters are removed from him" and this is only in-depth study that delves and understands the wisdoms of the Torah, and then he merits enlightened countenance, and then when a person's entire thought is only in-depth Torah, in the Gemara to understand the Gemara well, to understand the sugya well, to understand all the Rishonim, and all the Acharonim, and to summarize it, and to write it, and meanwhile to innovate a few more innovations, then at that moment he merits such enlightened countenance that the whole world returns in teshuvah, he receives such enlightened countenance that the whole world returns in teshuvah from his face, "a man's wisdom illuminates his face, and thereby they remove from him the yoke of the kingdom and the yoke of worldly matters", and then there is no yoke of the kingdom in the world, no Russians, no Arabs, no non-Jews, nothing, no yoke of the kingdom, one person who puts his head into in-depth Torah, Hashem is willing to remove the yoke of the kingdom from the world, to annul the kingdoms so that only the people of Israel will rule, only the Torah will rule.