The Power of Torah | Rabbi Shlomo Cynamon

Years ago, as a Talmid, I was walking in the streets of Yerushalayim with my Rebbe, R’ Dovid Soloveitchik zt”l, and we were talking in learning. An old Sefardishe Yid walked up to us in the street and said: Rosh Yeshiva, give me a Bracha. R’ Dovid stopped and he gave the person a Bracha. We walked a few steps further and the Rosh Yeshiva zt”l said to me, My great grandfather, the Beis Halevi, was once walking in the street and someone approached him for a Bracha. At first, he refused and then he gave the Bracha. The person walking with the Beis Halevi looked at him. That was unusual. He wasn't usually such an easy Bracha-giver. And the Beis Halevi said to him, I didn't give him the Bracha. The Zchus of the Torah that we were talking about as we were walking, that's the כח הברכה, and that's how I gave the Bracha. R’ Dovid meant to tell me, I gave him a Bracha Bizchus HaTorah, Bizchus our talking in learning in the street. That was the power that gave him a Bracha. Years ago in Yerushalayim, there was someone who had a קמע that was a very powerful קמע, that was given a Mesorah by the Turei Zahav, the Taz, to somebody. For some reason, the קמע was opened up, and the Taz wrote, I'm giving you a Bracha, Bizchus the clorkeit, the clarity, that I had today in a Tosfos in Masechtas Chulin. Torah has the power of Bracha. Torah has the power of protection. Torah is the Haganah to protect people in the world. כל שאומר אין תחיית המתים מן התורה is a כופר בעיקר, as the Mishna in Sanhedrin. It's said over in the name of the חידושי הרי”ם, כל שאומר אין תחיית המתים What does it mean אין תחיית המתים מן התורה? He teiched it and he defined it in a very interesting way. כל שאומר that Torah doesn't have the power of תחיית המתים, to be able to take a person who doesn't have חשק, who doesn't feel powered by his Yiddishkeit, Torah gives that Bracha. כל שאומר תחיית המתים אינה מן התורה the Torah can't wake you up, can't give you חיות, is a כופר בעיקר. Let's all take ourselves strongly, let's put more power into it. And if we do that, we learn our Torah with a חשק, before we go to work, then we'll be able to see ourselves as real Bnei Torah, real ehrliche Yidden, standing out in a very, very tumultuous world, a very turbulent world, a world that's always looking at us and trying to influence us in every which way that can be possible. But if we see ourselves as Torah Yidden, if the Bracha can be given to others, it can be given to ourselves. The Limud HaTorah is a Bracha. Let's all together do it with a חשק, do it with a fire and we’ll all be zoche, אם ירצה השם, אך טוב וחסד בשורות טובות, ישועות ונחמות.