346 - Torah Study (Part-4)

The Code of Jewish Law outlines that all people, men, women and children, are obligated in the pursuit of Torah learning. Women have a mitzvah to learn and master all the areas of Torah that are related to the practical fulfilment of the mitzvos, as well as areas that focus on the development and improvement of our character traits, as well as the areas of Torah that talk about how to bring us closer to Hashem, how to derive inspiration, to fear and love Hashem more, how to live with more emunah, faith, on a constant basis.

Men, of course, are obligated in the same way as women to learn about the performance of the practical mitzvos and make efforts in character development to seek inspiration, our fear of Hashem, our love of Hashem, and of course growth in our emunah and our personal relationship with Hashem, whilst at the same time there is an additional mitzvah, commandment, for men to constantly be involved in Torah, meaning to say, at any given opportunity where there is an extra moment, there is a commandment for a man to delve into Torah, even if in theory he knows the entire Torah already.

We've discussed many times that the Torah commentaries teach us that the purpose of our existence is to have emunah, to believe, specifically to believe when we don't see, we don't know, we don't understand. We read a mishnah every morning as part of the morning prayers that says that the value of Torah learning is equal to all 613 mitzvahs put together. When one sits down and learns Torah to the best of their abilities, it doesn't always feel as inspiring as if one has given a huge sum of money to charity or performed some other act of kindness. However, the Torah is teaching us the true perspective. Torah learning is so powerful, even when we don't feel inspired from it, that it is equal to all 613 mitzvahs put together.

Our job is to internalize that belief. One might ask, seeing as Torah learning is so great, perhaps one should not spend their time on any other mitzvos and just learn Torah the entire day. In theory, that would make sense. As mentioned, we have a mitzvah to learn Torah at any available opportunity, and seeing as the value of Torah learning is equal to all 613 mitzvahs put together, it would make sense that the most ideal course would be for me to be involved in Torah learning as much as possible, even at the expense of missing out on doing other mitzvahs. Again, there are always different ways to look at anything, it all depends on perspective, but when we want the truth, the only place to look is the Torah.

The code of Jewish law, the Shulchan Aruch, outlines exactly what to do. When there is a mitzvah that can be taken care of by someone else, then the law is that it would be better for me to continue my Torah learning and not interrupt in order to go fulfill that mitzvah. So, let's say I'm currently learning Torah and I notice from the corner of my eye that there's somebody who is feeling very upset. We know one of the greatest mitzvos is to cheer somebody up. Now let's say I see that next to this person who is feeling down, a very good friend of his is sitting there, and if I continue to learn Torah, that very good friend will go and cheer up the individual who's feeling sad. If that would be the case, I would be exempt from that mitzvah, and the right thing to do would be to continue to learn Torah and not interrupt to perform that mitzvah. However, let's say that that individual that is feeling down has a special close bond with me, and I know that I am the only one who is in a position to cheer him up, then the Torah commands us that we are obligated to stop learning Torah and go perform that mitzvah, because this is now a mitzvah that cannot be performed by anyone else. Again, whether we understand the perspective or not, if we are following the guidance of the Torah, we are for sure on the right track. We are so privileged to have been given Hashem's perspective, the Torah.