Rav Joseph B Soloveitchik on Finding the Shechina in Torah Learning by Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider

good morning everyone bov thank you for joining us this morning and uh being together for these let's begin with a per from and I'll recite it everyone is invited to join in with me and with that we have our soldiers in mind we have those that are kidnapped those that are in captivity those that have been injured and uh all of those that are going through very very difficult days um we have we have those in mind as we recite those words of tahim and Wavin so the question is how do we uh how do we respond as Jews in times of an eight in terms of uh difficult days and the difficult days that we are in one of the ways classically that we respond is what we just did and that is davening and that is praying reciting words of tahil there is another way as well which as uh some have pointed out in terms of today in particular there are those that take on fasting and uh there is a tradition of the day that precedes or that goes into Ros kodesh and tonight is Ros KES klave so today is a day which is known as Yumer Katan that is a day that we ask for atonement which relates to the atonement the kapara of the div of KES there are those that recite special there are those that fast as well and I saw Ral shita of Yeshiva University and I saw through the rabant of Israel that there was a recommendation being that there already is a custom which most people don't observe but there is a custom of fasting today to take on today as a fast day as a uh as a day that we that we use that fast intentionally for uh as a prayer and asking God for raim and for kapar for atonement so there are many that are doing that today so the idea of fasting is something that we do incorporate it's one of the ways in which we respond to times of suffering and there's another way as well that I want to highlight and that's going to be the topic of my my this morning one of the ways that we respond to to difficult days is with Torah learning with Liu Torah that is very much a part of what we've done in these sessions together over the last number of weeks to learn Torah together and specifically learning Torah with uh with the soldiers in mind with uh with the difficulties that we are facing and asking God for R there is a source in the gamar and this is found in Milla the very beginning of Milla DAV giml where it talks about yosua who is going to war as we know Yeshua Conquering the land of Israel and one evening an Angel appears to yosua and says to yosua that although you are engaged in war you also need to be learning Torah that turn that Torah learning itself also brings safety to am Israel and that is one of the important sources that we have in terms of the connection the importance of Torah learning how Torah learning can act as a safeguard bringing safety to to am Israel and uh so our Torah learning during these days is very important and uh the Torah learning that we're doing right now has that added Dimension not only the Torah learning in terms of the Torah lishma and the learning that we're doing but the the Torah itself we pray should be a uh should be should be a safeguard to Amel at this time but that is kind of like the spiritual a spiritual component a more mystical component how Torah brings a certain amount of safety to Amel but I want to talk about and highlight another aspect of Torah learning and why it's so important during this time and really based on a uh on a teaching of RAB Sal where he talks about a particular component of Torah learning which I think is very significant for us and one of the aspects of Torah learning that we don't always have in mind because we think about Tor learning in terms of an intellectual pursuit in ter terms of the wisdom that we attain through Torah learning but there's another aspect of Torah learning and that is the relationship that we have with Hashem that we Forge a deeper relationship a closer relationship with Hashem when we learn and here I want to highlight a Hal that's found in the rambam and we know that the salivic the briskers always turn to the rambam in terms of of sourcing their ideas and this is found in perlim the and he writes something which is um a bit out of the ordinary in terms of the best time to learn here we are we're Gathering right now in the morning 10:30 10:35 in Yim as a beautiful time to learn Torah but the rambam writes there's another time that's even more significant for Torah learning and this is what he writes even though it's a Mitzvah to learn day and night that the nighttime learning is when one learns and one is able to attain the greatest amount of Torah knowledge if a person wants to Merit the crown of Torah that person should be aware should be careful with the way that they're spending the nighttime hours the nighttime hours have uh provide an opportunity many many hours at night to be able to learn Torah and it's possible to lose out not to take advantage of that that's what the ra you shouldn't lose just sleeping off the night going to bed early just drinking and eating just just conversing how important it is to learn Torah at night but here the ra adds the following and the rea the joy of Torah the song of Torah is only found in night Kum Ron Bala that's the ramban interesting this is in hilos rambam so he codifies the rambam codifies the law that there is something unique about the learning at night and here Sal points out that it's very very very startling the PK that the rambam chooses and it's a p that's found in and the in says Kumi Ron Bala now the question is how to translate the word Roni we're familiar with the word Ron as Reena as song but Roni or Reena also has another connotation almost an opposite connotation which means to cry or to cry out so one of the ways of interpreting this p and what the rambam is referring to is that nighttime learning is also a time to sing to God it's also a time to cry out to God which means that the Torah learning is not just an academic or an intellectual ual Endeavor but through that learning at night and what's so special about learning at night is the relationship that we Forge with Hashem and night there's something about the nighttime hours there's something about sitting under the moon and the stars the relationship the closeness maybe during the nighttime that we feel a bit more vulnerable and that we're turning to Hashem even through that learning of Torah and ideally through that learning of Torah that one feels the of hem the closeness of the interesting that P that the ramb quotes the second half of the p is something a part of the P that many of us are familiar with again he quoted from it's and I read the that's what the ramb quotes and the end of the that same is that I pour out my heart that I pour out my insides to towards Hashem which you see in this P the PK sounds like really davening it sounds like and yet the rambam is speaking about in the context of learning and we see that there is an aspect of learning that R salich Points out so beautifully that when we sit and learn Torah that not only is it an academic Pursuit not only is it about knowledge is it about wisdom about learning facts about learning Hala but it's also to use the wording of RAB salic it is a randevu with Hashem that we feel a closeness with Hashem as we're learning Torah and he quotes a another source in the rambam and this is something that we're familiar with I think mostly from pavos where the rambam writes and this is in this is that a person should be K that a person should should set time a particular time for Torah learning and the way that generally that's understood is that yes we need to have set times in our schedule and that's how we're going to in advance in terms of our learning that we're going to every single day DAV yomi Mish yomi whatever it is that we're learning on a regular basis and that's how we that's how we uh that's how we Ascend in terms of our learning said there's another aspect to to being K man to be kave man is to make a date and we make a date in our calendar when we're when we're looking forward to meeting somebody we're looking forward to getting together with somebody that we have a particular time that we do that we make that time we set that time and there we are getting together with that individual and Ros Al said this that we have to make a set time also Intimates it also loots the idea that we're making a set time with a kades that we're getting together on a regular basis with the Holy One with the almighty and we sit together learning his words learning his Torah and with that we Forge a closer connection with asem ro Salvation quotes another gamar this is found in and and it says the following the gamar says and also a well-known statement in the gamarra it says that you cannot compare a person that studies Torah a 100 times who reviews it 100 times to reviewing it 101 times that's the statement in the gamar there's nothing no comparison so Rob salvic said well what do you mean there's no comparison I mean if you reviewed something a 100 times you know it quite well you've gone over it over and over and over again and what does it mean that and first time and I want to just I'll share with you just a quote from from Rabbi salvic the way that he understands his gumara he says the talet here is referring to a different facet of Torah learning the student refuses to depart from his learning even after he repeated the chapter 100 times they feel that studying Torah is a randevu with the the divine presence therefore they constantly seek to prolong the experience they just cannot bring themselves to close the text so here Rabbi salvic interprets isamar a little bit differently generally it's understood that know the more you go over the more insight you're going to have he says no at some point there's there may not be any more Insight but the fact that you don't want to leave that piece of gamar that you don't want to leave learning you don't want to leave your Torah learning it means that you drawn to that you feel attached to that Torah that you feel attached to Hashem that you feel the closest to Hashem and the truth is this idea maybe maybe perhaps we can Source this in the Torah itself in the way that the Torah speaks about Torah learning and the Torah itself and it's the well-known P that that is is the P that describes the Mitzvah of learning Torah or writing a safer Torah a that we're familiar with and look at how the Torah speaks of the Torah you are to write the Shir you are to write this song interesting the Torah speaks about the Torah speaking about speaking about the words of Torah as a song to AEM and a song is something that is loving a song is something that brings us closer a song is something that relates to the emotion that's not the intellect when we talk about the song so the Torah itself when it speaks about the Mitzvah of writing a saer Torah and learning Torah it refers to it in the context of Shir of song something that brings us closer to Hashem R salic and the world of brisk was very much influenced by R Vin who is the great student of the vnon and ran writes a classic work about Torah learning and it's studied in the ISA world in the Yesa world the ne and um there he speaks about the importance of the Mitzvah of learning Torah how we learn Torah the effect that Torah learning has on the world and very much the theme that uh that I open with this morning in terms of the effect the impact the influence the the the spiritual impact that Tor learning has on everything around us but here the ne writes something about the intimacy that one is to feel with Hashem when one studies Tor and I think this may be one of the one of the sources that RAB salv draws from as he's highlighting this idea of Torah learning being experiential of feeling the presence of Hashem when we study Torah as well and I want to just quote to you this is from per Zion NE two lines from the ne this is from shid from the fourth the fourth gate the fourth chapter perig Zion and he writes the following he says right before you begin to engage in the study of Torah you should take a moment before you begin learning to think for a moment to think about that you are in the presence of hem you should feel a purity of heart you should fear feel in awe of hem but he recommends and I don't think most of us do this I don't do this is um that we take a moment before we open the gamar before we open thees before we begin learning just to take a moment to take a few seconds and to be cognizant to recognize that we're about to learn the Torah of hem we're about to sit in the presence of hem as we are learning and one more one more line from the ne uh and he says the and he says also within the learning as one is learning you sit you're learning for a half hour learning for 40 minutes learning for an hour as you're learning in the middle of learning how to it's appropriate and one can do the following just to take a moment stop what you're learning just for for a few seconds you should be aware that you are in the presence of hem that same feeling that you had going into your learning of Torah that you should think for a moment and renew that thought theem that you have a of hem that you that you in that you are in the presence of Hashem as you are learning very very interesting um this is the great teacher of Lithuanian learning I'm not sure if this is done in the aiva world um but it's something that he recommends in the in the ne but clearly we see from from clearly we see from from RAB Sal that tradition the importance of the experiential component of of Torah learning and what is that experience the experience of of feeling God's presence to feel that the is with us to feel that we are that we are close to Hashem and let me let me close the learning with the following the idea of feeling the is something that uh that we find that we find that the mishna speaks about as well this idea is not not a new not a new idea but very much rooted in the mishna what we would call an mishna that it's it's an open mishna it says it very clearly it's inos per giml and the third the third mishna in per giml giml giml two people that are sitting Torah and they are sitting together and they're learning Torah with one another the is there the is palpable it's interesting in this context and again you have many sources that talk about it but in this context that I'm uh that I'm quoting it speaks about two people that are learning Torah with one another and that that's a beautiful way of learning as well and especially during during these days not only to sit ourselves and open open a a saare open open learning toorah learning but to learn with others and here the mission is highlighting that idea that when two people are learning together when they're sharing with one another maybe they're are arguing a bit with one another the different ideas but having respect in that argument that the is pres and that we can feel the present in uh in that setting I want to close with the following story and this comes from one of the great kic Masters reali of RIT the rebi the the ru shits a rebbi and he tells a story of his childhood when he was a little boy when he was learning how just beginning how to learn to read The KES and one of the things that is rebbi pointed out is when you see two two Ys that are next to one another yud yud that that's the name of Hashem that's one of the ways that the name of of Hashem appears in the text so the next day when the uh little naali when he came in and he read thees when he was reading theim he read the PK at the at the very end of the PK he would say Hashem and the next PK he'd read the PK and he would say Hashem and the rebi said what are you doing why are you saying Hashem at the end of the PK well he said I see that there are two UDS two little dots at the end of every PK and that's the name of Hashem a lot of a lot of kashim have that that's the way as opposed to just the period at the end that there are two two periods or or two dots at the end to end the PK so the rebi turned to R naali well he wasn't rabali but just naali a little boy at that time and he said to him no that's not the name of Hashem and he said the following he said that when you have two Ys that are on top of one another on top of one another that's not the name of Hashem it's only when there are two yudes next to one another and a yud is like the word yid and a yid means Jews and when Jews are sitting next to one another when they're when they're together with one another then you have the yes Hashem is there but when the yous if it's one on top of the other if one is kind of sees himself higher than the next then the God's presence is not interested in being there is not there so part of Torah learning one of the most beautiful aspects of Torah learning is to feel the is to feel hashem's presence when we are learning together uh that should be a great source of to us as we are learning during this time as we take time during our day and I heard R aser Weiss one of the great G Torah of Our Generation he said that if the soldiers are sacrificing if they are putting in more time as they all are and putting in great energy at this time so we need to do the same on our front in terms of our T learning to add to our learning to add uh to add a few minutes maybe even a half hour or an hour to our Torah learning during these days and our Torah learning should be a source of bringing security to to our nation in a spiritual sense but also to each of us who are studying Torah that it should be a source of that we feel hashem's presence that we feel the closeness of Hashem and uh I want to wish everyone we'll conclude withu but I'll wish everyone we're just just hours away here in toes and when we think about rades kave it's a time a time of Joy I don't know if anyone has seen the Su rolling out yet usually by this time they're already out in the bakeries but uh we can look forward to please God a month of the month that celebrates Kaneka and a time please God of Miracles and wonders of for a time that we're going going to be lighting the manura that we should see greater light in the world greater light for am Israel and For All Mankind uh in the coming days as we celebrate please God this evening Roes let's conclude with the uh withu together as we pray for our brethren for our soldiers for those in captivity those that are healing hem should bring them from Darkness to light and bring a great salvation quickly in our day and we say Amen wish everyone a a good day and um and AES please got a month of of goodness and blessing ctive everyone