The Rebbe's Torah Study Campaign | Mivtza Torah

all right welcome back to another installment in our series on the mitsuyama on the mitzvah campaigns that were established by the laboratory and uh we want to again take the opportunity to remind everyone that this campaign or this series of learning about the mitzvah campaigns uh is dedicated both the the study as well as all of the mitzvahs that come from the study are all dedicated lilly nishmas for the ascent of the nishama of dinalea bas menachem mendel as well as david lazer ben yesef schleman we should have that in mind when we're studying tonight as well as when we're implementing what we've studied tonight's class is about mitsutaira the campaign to promote the study of torah and when we made up the calendar at the beginning of the year we were deliberate in choosing this campaign for this time of year because we are right now in the days before shavuous the yamthev of chavuz which is the anniversary and the reliving of the revelation at sinai we commemorate we give thanks we relive the experience of god giving us his law revealing his will his innermost will to us in the form of the torah at sinai 3300 and 33 years ago i think it is now someone can do a calculation what's 57 81 minus 2448 i think it's uh 3333 at this point so uh as we're preparing now in is reschedule this is actually the date when the jewish people arrived in the wilderness of sinai where the mountain mount sinai is located so uh we're really in in a time where the energy that's available in the world right now the energy that is um active right now each of these days is an energy of of receiving the torah so we couldn't think of a more appropriate time to discuss this subject we mentioned before that some of the um campaigns of the deba were sort of rolled out unofficially i think they call it nowadays in marketing a soft opening um before it was made into an official campaign and that's the case with uh mifsatora mitsuto became one of the official mitsuyum in the summer of 1974. we spoke about in conjunction with other mitzvah campaigns how that ebba was reflecting after the imkipper war about the services that were provided for the soldiers and that they they required spiritual uh inspiration and that's sort of how uh how some of the italian were launched was in conjunction with supporting uh giving moral support to to israeli soldiers and by the way we should mention right now that um this learning and everything that comes from this learning is something that increases the the morale and the courage of jews everywhere but especially our brothers and sisters in the holy land not to mention the spiritual effects that this study has on bringing merit which shields all jews everywhere at any rate um so that was the summer of 1974 but there was actually a soft opening so to speak of mifsatera on the 15th of schwart what many people refer to as tu bashvat the uh rosh hashana leolanis the new year for trees so in the year uh 57-31 that's tough shin lam at aleph which is uh the uh the winter of 1971 january february 71 the rabbit announced as madoff ain't developed that it is now the time to conquer the world through the study of torah that through spreading out torah study encouraging people to study torah we are going to transform this entire planet into a perfected place and the key is is this uh this campaign so let's talk a little bit about the transformative effects that torah study has and also let's talk a little bit about how the devil wanted this campaign to be implemented um there's a story of the al-tarab the balatanya the first rabb of khabad that he met with one of the leaders of his opponents they misnogged him named yeshua taitlin and uh he was one of the enim of shklov shklov was a bastion of hysnogdis of opposition to to the and one of the things this yeshua asked the al-taraba is you know there was a a popular misconception that siddhim didn't didn't study torah and then there's there's there's a reason like like most stereotypes even when they're wrong they're based on uh something right it was a misunderstanding but um i mean long story short really really short is that the balshamptav stressed taking down the walls of division between the scholars and the simple people but in in in many circles that translated to a perception that siddha were anti-intellectual or weren't scholars which was not true but at any rate so during this debate in sh glove so rabbi yeshua saitlin asked the al-tarabha what's with the torah study of the sedum and the al trevor says i can assure you that the sedim have kevius kriyas means set times or appointed times established times to be que veya means to fix or to set something uh make something firmly established so this yeshua says that the alterab well we have that too we also i mean like that's a normal jewish thing vias a normal thing so the altar ever said yes but there's a difference between the time being established right being crivea establishing it in time or being coivea establishing it in your soul by us by the siddhim when a chosen has a set time for learning it's not established in time it's established in his soul and that is one of the keys to mitsutoro it wasn't just a campaign to promote study of torah it was a campaign specifically to promote being que veya item and not just setting a time that's set on the clock or the calendar or your reminder on your phone but set in your soul what does that mean a time is set in your soul it means that your study session your daily or actually ideally it's supposed to be a twice daily study session because once in the morning and once at night is established in your soul it becomes unthinkable to live without it you know like people who they go to the gym and they if they miss going to the gym it's just it's just unthinkable they first of all they wouldn't miss but if they would miss oh i'm in an awful mood because i didn't go to the gym today i missed my you know my appointment which obviously is not a bad thing it's a good thing but uh we should be that way with torah study um and that ever spoke about it in a very practical very accessible way very attainable that ever said look the point isn't at first at least when you're easing into it that you gotta make long study sessions that's not the point the point is that it should be regular and it should be uh you shouldn't miss so that i was spoken about it at a fabrian and said if you start with i don't remember if that ever said five minutes but there was certainly it was a short amount of time it was at the most i think that it said 15 minutes but it could if i remember correctly it could even even have been five minutes but ever said make it a short amount of time but make it something that's a firmly established in your soul something you wouldn't think to miss something that becomes an organizing principle of your life where you have to fit everything in around that and uh furthermore i ever spoke about you know what does it mean qualitatively because there's quantity in this quality you know quantity is you're learning hours a day which by the way i know to some people that sounds like learning hours a day of talk yeah yeah i mean that is that's actually not such a wild thing to have several hours a day and i'm not talking about somebody in kylo who's a full-time scholar talking about a working person who has responsibilities but you know they they they go to a basement addition tonight and then they study for two three four hours on top of a full-time job why not but i don't want to intimidate anyone let's let's start off with just saying okay put aside the quantity we'll do a minimal quantity 5 10 15 minutes but let's talk about quality okay what does quality mean the device said that when you're studying torah during your during your set time it should be it should be to you like shabbos what does that mean it means somebody who's shabbos observant if the phone rings on shabbos it's not that you reach for and then you stop yourself and say oh i'm shabbos observant it's that it doesn't even register for you it's like it's so completely off your radar i mean you're aware that there's this noise but it's not relevant to you because look whoever's calling me if they know me they're not calling me on shabbos right so that is supposed to be qualitatively what our set times for toyota are like what does it mean that it's set in your nephesh that it's set in your soul not just that there's a time and you keep the time and you show up on time and you don't finish earlier and you don't start later which of course is important as well but what does it mean that it's really affirmed in your soul it means that during that time if the phone rings it's as relevant to you as if it were to ring on shabbos the dev actually says that um when it's very interesting the picture that ebba that's it just you could totally imagine this um that if a person is at home let's say and he's studying terra and at first his family is not going to really respect those times i mean they support it it's very nice but they're going to want to come over and talk to him and interrupt him and i mean obviously if it's a life and death type of thing like on shabbos you would also interrupt for life and death but uh but barring that you know uh you can't be interrupted so that says his family at first they're gonna they're not gonna have those boundaries because they're not used to it and they didn't see them doing this before and they're gonna interrupt the molly's studying that eva says but if he shows that these times are sacred that nothing else i mean obviously if while he's learning toyota he's also like texting people from work and like you know setting up tomorrow's business deal then please don't expect your uh your family to revere your your set times because you're not reviewing them but if the person will show that these times are sacred inviolable like he will not do anything to to besmirch the the the integrity whether it's five minutes 10 minutes 15 but during that time nothing can be nothing can interrupt then not only will his family respect that but that eva says the family is going to start protecting him and they're going to keep away any interruptions because they're going to see how serious it is and it'll become part of the rhythm of the family it'll just become how the household runs that during these times of torah nothing you know if the phone rings one of the kids answers no i'm sorry you know my father's not available right what if he's not available he's not available he's studying thoroughly not available so that's the main idea of mifsuto is this creating sacred times with a deep soul connection to those times that we do not violate now well let's speak a little bit more about what the musta entails and uh then i want to get back to like i said before i nam and developed conquering the world to limit toyota why is studying torah so transformative what is transformative about about torah study so we'll get to that i mean but i want to speak a little bit more about um about the campaign the campaign also like all of the campaigns is about influencing others so uh it's not just setting up my sacred times for torah study it's also encouraging others to have such times all of them at soyum are that way they're all about uh influencing others so what how how is that implemented in this mitzva so you know the famous saying it's one of probably i don't know did i do a survey i don't know but i would guess that it's one of the most famous uh quotes of the rabbi which is if you know aleph teach aleph so where did ever say this never said this in conjunction with mithsa toyota with the torah study campaign that ever said that a person might think well i'm no scholar so how am i going to go influence other people to study torah i have no torah to share so like basically i've have no part in this campaign so the devil said first of all who says that you have to be the teacher maybe you can be the marketing you know you can be the promoter you know the carnival barker who gets the people to come into the tent you don't have to be the the one who actually performs the rabbi who gives this year you could be the one who gets people too this year although by the way i want to just take this moment to do uh to play both roles uh schwarz sunday night right we have a custom to stay up all night studying torah so i want to invite everybody i'm going to promote my own cheer right now i want to invite everybody who is in five towns for yomtif or if you're not in five towns fiance maybe you'll make a point to come into five times for yomtif to come join us for all night torah study we're gonna be learning torah all night we're gonna have some exciting topics i think we're starting at 11 30 p.m and we're going to be going uh basically until whenever until dawn four or five whatever it is uh this is and uh i'm sure just the the promise of torah study is enough to attract you all but we're going to throw in extra no extra charge there's going to be a sushi bar as well so come join us for sushi bar and refreshments and i'm sure they'll it'll be social over there will be a nice company and i'll be teaching uh some classes we'll change up the topic every like every 45 minutes to an hour we'll come up with a list schedule for the for the all-night torah study anyways if you want more information on that go to khabad5towns.como for more info about that we're gonna have an amazing time okay so that's the end of our commercial uh break right that's uh a word from our sponsors but back to our uh regularly regularly scheduled program so first of all a person is going to say i'm not a scholar so how am i supposed to um participate in this campaign so the number says well first of all who says that you have to be the one who's teaching it you could be the one who's promoting it you could get people to come to a class but second of all don't think that you have nothing to teach that's not true you have something maybe you only know one chapter of halacha but you could teach that chapter of halacha and maybe you only know an aleph but if you know aleph teach olive so that's where that that famous saying from that ever comes from don't sell yourself short don't assume that you have nothing to offer in the realm of torah study you know whatever it is that you do know go ahead and start sharing it now so that's uh an important message i think for all of us i mean look you're you're at this class right now so you heard what i just said you learned something if you knew nothing else other than what i was just teaching just now you would have what to teach and you know just don't tell anyone about the link after we post the recording then you could by the way you could do that i give you full permission right now to take any of my classes you go to soulwords.org and you could take any of my classes and you could steal it word for word you could take the jokes you could take whatever you want and you could do it all without giving me any credit no problem i'm very very happy for everybody to do that the point is um everybody can be a torah teacher if you know something teach that thing okay um i want to teach i want to talk a little bit more now about the transformative power of torah study what is transformative about about torah um you know it's interesting that david malek was a a warrior and and and a king and uh a poet but first and foremost david malach king david was a torah scholar and torah study was his foremost passion and love and some of the poetry that i'm talking about the psalms the tillam that king david writes are poetic ways of describing his love of the torah one of the things king david says very lyrically is uh your torah he's speaking to hashem he says your torah hashem is in my inners what does that mean your torah is in my innards i mean if i were to associate toyota with a body part i would i would say your tater's in my head and my cup and my brain my mind but why is it in my tummy my innards i mean my kishki's like that's that's where you put toyota so uh in the holy tanya of the altareba pedic hey chapter five he explains over there what that means in tanya one of the key themes there is the idea of um of behavioral perfection he talks about the banini who's conflicted because he has a yatzahara he has he has selfish impulses but he focuses on his behaviors and the perfection of his behaviors and he calls them levushim clothing and and the point there is that when you do a mitzvah you engage in a behavior it's much easier to change your clothing than it is to change your body right so to change your impulses your hard wiring the way you think and feel that that's that's really grueling long-term work but just to you know get dressed nice and change your outfit that's not so hard and that that's that's basically the metaphor it's an extended metaphor in tanya about focusing on behaviors just change your clothing change the behaviors change the outward expression is that called hypocrisy maybe it is but it's a very noble thing to be a hypocrite in that case in that context it's like act better than you feel you know do better than you feel like doing and that that's that's very noble at any rate so there's a lot in tanya about levushim about clothing the behaviors are like clothing okay and then in chapter five he says but just like their soul clothing there's also soul food what is soul food um sulphur i know it's like like collard greens but i'm saying like jewish soul food oh no no no i mean as opposed to the garments of the soul what is considered the nourishment of the soul so here's what the altar says in uh in periquery of tanya that if the mitzvahs are like the clothing of the soul then tour of study is like the food of the soul and here's why because when you put on a nice suit and you look nice when you come home and you take it off and you put on your pajamas and now somebody comes up to you and says let's take a picture well don't take a picture i'm in my pajamas no but you were wearing your suit tonight yeah but i already took off the suit don't take a picture of me now right when you're wearing the nice clothes you're wearing it as soon as you take it off and you change you're no longer wearing it so when you're doing a mitzvah you're doing it but once you're no longer doing it okay you gotta get busy with the next right thing contrast that with food food has a lingering effect foods effect lasts long after you engaged in the behavior right you put on nice clothes but it's no one can see that you were aware that you were all dressed up earlier tonight when you already you know changed into your pajamas but if you go and you eat the cheesecake then you know it could be days weeks months later and uh you're carrying it around with you you could tell that you ate that cheese i ate the cheese it took me 10 minutes to eat that cheesecake and now it's months later i'm still still recognizable on me the point is that um we're not casting aspersions on cheesecake by the way because schwarz is coming up and oh and did i mention there's a sushi bar at the all-night learning at khabada the five towns yes there is okay the point is torah study has a lingering effect it's like food that you eat it you digest it you metabolize it and it becomes part of your flesh and blood when you're doing a mitzvah so you've done something good but when you study torah not only are you doing something good which is called tower study and it's a mitzvah to study torah but it has the added advantage of it's rearranging rewiring the way your mind works like when you're eating and and the the the nutrients from the food are becoming part of your body and and that's what's transformative about about about torah study and and and you know you can understand very well then what we're saying about if you have 15 minutes of of you have this sacred time 15 minutes a day but that time can have an effect long after those 15 minutes just like you know you spent 15 minutes you know eating a cheesecake and has a long term effect long after the 15 minutes are done when we study torah it doesn't just help us occupy our time well for the 10 minutes 15 minutes 30 minutes an hour that we're studying it does so much more than that it's how that hour of torah study will affect my thinking days after the study session is over because that's really what torah does torah is not just um you know knowing facts it's a way of thinking it's a value system it's a viewpoint and it colors the way we experience everything in life so when you start studying torah it changes the way you see everything it it it's not just you are studying torah but torah becomes your way of thinking and in that sense it's extremely transformative um you know there's a discussion in the in the talmud about whether a torah scholar is allowed to forgo the honor due to a torah scholar there's a there's an obligation to honor torah scholars so the question is you know can a torah scholar say i forgo that i'm not going to be uh particular that people have to honor me so the discussion the talmud goes like this well there's a verse in tehillim in psalms actually the first chapter of psalms which we said today today being the first day of the month of seven um it says that he desires hashem the the the torah of hashem of asera say and in his torah yagi game walala he he uh meditates day and night so uh the talmud says like this very interesting his desire is hashem's take he's talking about a person a person desires hashem's title i mean he wants to learn hashem's tata and in his torah he meditates day and night so talmud says when he wanted to study when it was his desire it was hashem's tiger but when he actually studied it when he meditated in a day and night uva sadas say in his toyota his doesn't mean hashem stated his means the person who's studying it his torah he meditates day and night because what happens you actually transfer ownership of the torah when you wanted to study what does it mean i wanted to i wanted to i didn't i wanted to right then it's hashem but when you actually put in the sweat equity and you meditate in the toyota day and night now it's an acquisition like literally like like when you eat food and then you you metabolize it and becomes your flesh and blood it becomes you so when you sit and you study toyota whether it's for hours or it's for 15 minutes you make an acquisition it becomes yours you make a kenyan in toyota an acquisition where this becomes your there's an ownership there's an ownership i'm not quoting anymore i'm not telling you what the good book says i'm telling you the way i think because that's the effect that torah study has that it becomes my way of thinking it rewires my brain so therefore the talmud says yes the torah scholar could forego the honor due to him you know why because he owns it if it were hashem's honor who are you to forgo hashem's honor but at the point where he becomes a torah scholar meaning he put in the time he put in the effort he internalized it he owned it now it's his he can do whatever he wants with it very powerful concept that through torah study we can take hashem's perspective think about this torah is like the zayar says he's talking about iso alma that hashem looked into torah and created the world torah is the blueprint for creation torah is not a reaction to the conditions of the world like man-made laws come and they legislate how to deal with the conditions of this world torah is the exact opposite torah created the conditions of this world because toyota existed as hashem's will and wisdom for an eternity before the world existed um yes we speak about existing 2000 years before creation but obviously we're not talking temporally because before creation before time was created it's not just 2000 years it's really eternally because ultimately torah is one with hashem and hashem is eternal so the torah is eternal so what that means is think about this try to fathom this that hashem gave us a way to internalize infinity that's wild that a finite mind of a created being should not only be able to have a relationship with infinity but i should be able to put the infinite into the finite that i should take hashem's infinite will and wisdom in any form and be able to put it into little old me it's it's it's mind-boggling and yet that is precisely what torah study is to our study is the uh transformation of a finite being into an infinite being when we study torah we we learn hashem's perspective on the world and uh and and that's why by the way you know a lot of people speak dismissively sometimes about certain areas of torah study where they say well that's not very practical or it would never happen it's one of those you know really far-fetched cases that the rabbis invented in the talmud and so what's the point of studying it's not it's not relevant and here's what you have to understand says this in chapter 5 of tanya the word quoted before even if a case were never to come to pass ever meaning if it never actually happened it doesn't matter because the fact that you know that if it were to happen this would be hashem's opinion in that case and now you have that as your viewpoint that makes you godly that's becoming godly now you are looking at something the way that the creator looks at it so whether or not you'll ever encounter it in real life that that that's that's a bonus if that happens but just being able to think about an idea from a godly perspective that's an amazing gift that we were given and then obviously you know when it comes to the things that actually do come up in life a torah scholar and when i say torah scholar i really mean all of us to some degree like i was saying before everybody has what to teach a torah scholar somebody who has godly perspective on all matters of life whether it's education or marriage or business or health or politics whatever it is torah gives us godly eyes to be able to look at life so it's not just when i look at something it's me as one created being looking at another created being when i study torah and i know hashem's viewpoint now when i look at things in this world i'm able to look at a created being from the perspective of its creator that's that's amazing so so you understand very well then why torah study is so transformative or how torah study is so transformative and if we can spread that perspective to the entire world and we can give people that godly perspective then you know that's world peace then we've solved all the problems so uh yeah i think that's something we can all meditate on as we head into shavuos and zman matanteroseno let's all think about ways that we can practically make torah study in a fixed established cherished part of our daily routine let's think of ways that we can bring that to others and involve others whether it's by teaching them or studying setting up a study partner making a chavrusa every day that's a very very uh powerful thing for both people for both study partners or if it's just promoting a class letting somebody know about a class or letting them know about this series um or whatever it might be or you know today with the internet you find a nice link and you send it to somebody and you say hey watch this class watch it on double speed if you want and then can we make an appointment tonight at 11 p.m after the kids are asleep to talk about that class for 15 minutes right and you make a regular thing out of that whatever i don't have to give you suggestions you guys are industrious you'll figure it out but that's the gist of it okay um i'm going to wish you now the traditional uh well wishes that we all uh in lubavitch customarily say on chavos in the days leading up to it uh the wishes of kabbalah satayra may you receive the torah with joy and inner depth truly truly internalize it own it make it yours okay we'll see you god willing sunday night if you're here in the five towns