Sparks of Alshich - The Hidden Power of Torah Study Explained - Rabbi Shmuel Wagshal

The Torah we're studying here today should be a merit for all the Jewish people and especially here in Eretz Yisrael, all the Torah that's being learned to the end of this month, every extra word of Torah we learn is a great great s'chus. And it should be a s'chus on everybody here and in the whole world. So, we are studying in this week's parshas the ideas of the korbanos and all the different aspects of the korbanos, the halachos of the korbanos, and all the different offerings and everything that comes with it. But in the end of the parshas of korbanos, the verse says, "Zos haTorah la'olah, la'mincha, ul'chatas, ul'asham, ul'milu'im, ul'zevach hashlamim." This is the Torah of all these korbanos. And the Alshich says as follows. He says that really a person is going to be learning about all these halachos of the korbanos and all the deep ideas of what the korbanos do and how they bring off how they bring um a person to teshuvah and how they bring uh you know, thanks to Hashem and every day we bring korbanos and of course that brings a great kaparah on us and you know, it's a it's a it's a it's a great it's a great thing. The korbanos are a great great thing. And the we're going to we're missing it now. How are we going to get all those uh rectifications and all the holiness that the korbanos brings down and all the blessings that the korbanos brings down and all the teshuvah that the korbanos brings us to, all the all the you know, all the holiness of the korbanos. How are we going to get it today? And we're learning these these these different ideas and we have no access to it today. And we might feel like, you know, it's it's lost to us. It's lost to us and it's gone. But the Alshich says that really in the end of the day, a very famous idea, that more than Hashem wants all the sacrifices and more than Hashem wants all the different uh service in the Beis Hamikdash, he actually the most important thing that a Jew could do, the greatest thing that a Jew could do is study Torah. And believe it or not, even with all of the depth and all the wisdom and all the laws that we learn about the korbanos, this in the studying of Torah you have it all. Now this idea is a famous idea. But the Alshich brings out how that works. You know, it's easy to say Torah is every Torah is everything. But how does that actually work? How when I learn Torah am I as if bringing or greater than even bringing the olah and the mincha and all these unbelievable korbanos? So he varies he explains that while you're learning Torah you're actually there's aspects of every single carbon being happening. While someone's learning Torah, it's he there is an aspect of a carbon of an offering happening. And he goes through each one. So he says that the first carbon that we talk about is the carbon olah. And the carbon olah he says is the idea that when a person learns totally totally lishmah, for the name of Hashem, and he gives in his entire heart and his entire being and his entire effort and his entire energy into study of Torah, it's as if a great fire is going on inside of him in his heart in his mind and his neshama and it's totally brought up to Hashem. When a person spends time learning Torah without any type of external desires, totally given over to Hashem, working really really hard, he's bringing himself a fire. The fire of Hashem is coming into his neshama and it's going all up. And it's as if he brought an olah to Hashem. So that is a carbon olah. Carbon olah of course is the carbon that we put on the mizbei'ach and all of it goes up to Hashem. It's like a fire and it it goes up all to Hashem. So that's the carbon olah. What about the carbon the carbon mincha? So he says let me just get the carbon mincha is the next one, right? So the carbon mincha he says we should know that when we're learning Torah is actually two things happening. First of all, we're doing tremendous things in the higher realms. The study of Torah is creating worlds in the higher higher realms, bringing energy to the higher realms. And when you do the desire of Hashem, really every desire of Hashem you do, especially the learning of Torah, you're you're you're rectifying the higher worlds. But not only that, you're actually making it better for this world. Um the Gemara says that there was somebody that for example he brings down the Gemara says that there was somebody Rav Chanina ben Dosa who in the merit of his study of Torah, the whole world got all his food. Because he studied Torah so intently and with such devotion, the entire world got all its sustenance from the study of Torah from Rav Chanina. So again, what do we see? That the study of Torah is doing two things. On the one hand, it's bringing rectification to the higher world and on the other hand it's actually bringing goodness and shefa and bracha down to this world. And he says this is like the carbon mincha. Why? Because the carbon mincha has two parts. Part of it goes up onto the altar and part of it is eaten. Part of it is eaten by part of it is eaten. So part of it we see goes up as a as a as a as food for the shamayim and part of it is eaten as food for this world. Again, the study of Torah, part of it goes up for shamayim and part of it is actually feeding the entire world. So that's how we're doing the carbon mincha. How are we doing the carbon chatas? So he says of course, because every time a person studies Torah, every time a person invests in learning Torah, puts his mind into it, in and of itself is an aspect of a kaparah, is an aspect of teshuvah, is an aspect of becoming closer to Hashem and rectifying the sins that we've done in the past. And he says, the again, the carbon chatas has two things. It's has parts that go up to the gevurah. It's rectifying the sins that we've done above. A person does sins same way a mitzvah does goodness in the in the higher realms, sins mess up the higher realms like we've spoken about many times. >> [snorts] >> So too the carbon chatas, when we slaughter it, part of it is fixing up what we've done in the higher realms and the teshuvah we do with it. And part of it is fixing up ourselves. So too the carbon chatas, we spoke about this in depth last week. So too the carbon chatas, part of it goes on the altar and goes burnt up. That's why that's the part that's fixing the higher realms as if to say and part of it gets eaten by the kohanim but it gets eaten. And that's as if it's fixing up this world. So too the study of Torah, every time a person a Jew studies Torah and and and the more he studies, the more uh energy and the more inspiration he puts into it, he's fixing the higher world and all the sins that he's that he's that he's caused him to mess up the higher world and destroy the higher worlds, he's rectifying with the study of Torah and ourselves. A person studies Torah, he's fixing himself, he's fixing his neshama, he's fixing his body, he's fixing his being. So the study of Torah is like a chatas. What's the next thing? Um milu'im. What's the milu'im? These were the These were the korbanos that were brought as a carbon chinuch, as an initiation. And what's the idea? He says that a a person sometimes is not able to learn all day and all night. And sometimes he only learns from time to time. A person might feel that that Torah is not valuable. That Torah is not valuable. I'm only learning here, I'm learning there, I'm not learning regularly. He says that Torah also counts. And he brings out an amazing story in the Gemara. The Gemara says that there was Rav Yakov Rav Idi Rav Yakov Rav Idi. Rav Yakov Rav Idi used to travel. It's an amazing Gemara in Gemara Chagiga. He says that he used to travel three months in the year to sit in the Beis Medrash, in the Beis Medrash of Rav, and then he would only be able to be there for one day because he had to run back for Yom Tov. So he would travel three months, spend one day learning Torah and then travel back to be back home on time for being home home on time for Yom Tov. People would make fun of him and say, "What are you here? You're you're you're you're barely you're barely learning." But then in the end the Gemara says no, the Gemara brings a possuk that says that if a person is trying to learn, he wants to learn and he's on the way to learn but he doesn't actually have a chance to learn, that is also counted as a great thing. Because the desire is there, the will will is there. Even though he doesn't have the opportunity necessarily to learn regularly, but he wants to learn, this also is counted as learning. And this is also a great great thing. So the Alshich says the milu'im are the the korbanos that we do to initiate and to start off it's a carbon chinuch. It starts off the the it's the carbon that we start off with. So when a person starts off too, he might think he's doing nothing. He might think it's worthless. But again, the korbanos are teaching us that and the Alshich is saying that from here we see that whatever you could do, if that's where you're holding and that's what you could do right now and you and you want the desire is there and you try to do what you can but you know, you're not able to learn all day and all night, Hashem counts that also. And that type of Torah is also important. That type of type of Torah is also valuable. And then he says, "What about the shlamim?" So the shlamim goes partially on the mizbei'ach, partially to the kohanim and partially for the people to eat it. I mean, you yourself eat your own carbon shlamim. What does that represent? That represents the idea that when a person studies Torah and let's say he can't be like an olah. He can't be totally totally given over to Hashem. We have our own personal uh reasons why we want to learn. We're not coming with the purest motives. Maybe we feel if we learn Torah we'll be smart. Maybe we feel if we learn Torah we'll get Hashem will give us blessings. Maybe we feel if we learn Torah, you know, we'll we'll feel good with our lives. We're not doing it for necessarily the purest motives. That's also good. Like the carbon shlamim that part of it you get to eat. You get some enjoyment in this world from the carbon shlamim. So too the Torah that we learn, that we feel like we get some enjoyment from, is also of value, is also of importance, is also of meaning. And the idea is that again that the Alshich is saying that when a person studies Torah, no matter what the Torah he's learning, no matter what he's no matter what his situation is, all of it is going up and all of it is rectifying the realms and rectifying ourselves. And it's even greater than the actual giving of a carbon. And this is what he says, Torah she asik the Torah that you that you toil in tovim in a carbonus are greater than the carbonus. Because when you listen to Hashem and you cling to the words of Hashem, and you're trying you're trying to learn what Hashem wants of us. That is more desirous of Hashem than even a delicious unbelievable seventy even an unbelievable carbon. Because this is really the words of Hashem that the people should come and learn and study his ways. Now of course the carbonus have great rectifications and they're very very important and we need them. But a person shouldn't feel like oh we don't have them there's nothing. Because if we have the Torah we actually have more than the carbonus in a way. And this is how he explains the possuk. The possuk says, uh this is these are the carbonus asher tiva Hashem is Moshe b'har Sinai. This is the Torah that Hashem gave us at Har Sinai. And then he says, b'yom tzavas Bnei Yisrael hakrivu es carbonaihem l'Hashem b'midbar Sinai. So he says let's put the possuk up. He says the Torah itself was given where? On Har Sinai. And this is the greatest thing a Jew could do is study Torah. The carbonus he says were only given after we sinned with the sin of the eggel, with the sin of the calf, then later in the midbar Sinai, not in the in the midbar, in the desert, then Hashem gave us the carbonus. Because really the carbonus were only after we were imperfect we needed the carbonus to rectify us. We needed the carbonus to fulfill uh the fulfill the the idea that we were not perfect and to help us um do teshuvah from our do teshuvah from our sins. This is what he says. It's very interesting. He says really the carbonus only post sin. Post factor. But in a perfect world all we would need is the Torah. In a perfect world we wouldn't need the carbonus. If we in if we were perfected and and and rectified in a perfect way, there would be no need for the for the carbonus and all we would need is the Torah. And really in the Torah itself has everything. Has all the rectifications like we just learned. All the all the goodness in the world it could bring goodness down to this world in every way possible. It fits in the higher realms in every way possible. Because when you're listening to the words of Hashem and dedicating your mind and your life and your soul to learn the words of Hashem. And of course for the reasons that you want to not just to learn it but to study it and to engage in it and to follow the words of Hashem. This is ultimately the higher highest desire of This is the ultimately the highest desire of God. Now unfortunately we sin and we the more removed the we way we are, so we need to do we need to do actions to get ourselves closer. And we need to do extra things in order to fix what we've broken. But if we wouldn't have been broken, we wouldn't need it because the Torah has everything in it. So that's the idea that we're sitting now at the end of this month. And there's a war going on over here. We're seeing tremendous tremendous miracles. And of course everyone has on the top of their mind when is Mashiach coming. It may be very soon. But the idea is that until then the Alshich is giving us inspiration that we should realize that you think that you need this and you think that you need that. And really at the end of the day everything is in the Torah. All the rectifications, all the miracles, all the bracha, all the shefa, everything we have is in it. You have to toil in it and learn it. And he's saying even if you can't do it perfectly. And that's I think the idea over here is that even if you can't do it perfectly, you can't learn all day and all night. Or you may have some personal reasons why you're doing it. That's okay too. That's okay too. Because the idea is that as long as you're engaging with the word of Hashem and you're desiring to learn the words of Hashem and desiring to connect to the to the to the ratzon Hashem, to the to the will of Hashem, that is the greatest thing that Hashem even greater than all the carbonus, even greater than everything else. So in the merit merit of our studying and the merit of our connecting to the words of Torah, may Hashem give us all the blessings, all the happiness, and the safety that we need. And we should be zocheh to see the geulah shleimah b'karov b'yameinu, amen.