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Special Supplement: Shavuot"The Blessing of Torah Study" by Rabbi Chaim BrovenderThe prophet Yirmiyahu asks: "Who is the wise man that may understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken that he may declare it? Why does the land perish; burned up by the wilderness that none passes through" (9: 11).The prophet who knew very well the state of the people and their insistence on doing evil and rejecting the Torah asks, nevertheless, what of divine mercy? What did they do which left no alternative but to but to turn the land into a desolate wilderness? Hashem answers the question: "the Lord says: 'Because they have forsaken my Torah which I have set before them and have not obeyed my voice not walked therein; but they have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baalim, as their fathers taught them'" (9: 12). It remains unclear. Naturally, they did not listen to the directives of the Torah. That is the primary definition of the word "sin", but the question still remains: why such a forceful punishment? Forsaken Torah How? The gemara (in shavuot 81a), explains this verse in an interesting way: "It was because they didn't make the blessing on the Torah (before beginning their learning)." This seems to imply that Torah study went on before the time of the destruction but that it was not accompanied by the correct attitude: they were not careful about the bracha that precedes the learning. Chazal's answer makes our problem more difficult to understand. We usually associate the destruction (first temple) as being the result of the worst transgressions imaginable. Why do Chazal say something so counter to that perception and indicate that the reason for the destruction was not saying the bracha on talmud Torah even though the people exerted themselves and learned? This bracha has a special status and is considered by most rishonim to be of biblical force (deoraita), and, as such, unique among the blessings recited before doing a mitzvah. Still, the mystery remains. This bracha may be very important, but how could its omission be cause of the destruction? What Kind of a Blessing? The words of the Levush (in OH section 47), introduce the obligation of making a bracha before formal learning, by saying that this is really a birkat nehenin, said before partaking of any good from G-d's world. We cannot partake of G-d's bountiful creation without blessing: that would be considered "stealing" from the sacred domain, like stealing from the Temple. A bracha permits us to take possession and make use of the world's bounty after first acknowledging its Maker and Owner. Maharsha explains (Pesachim 102) that birkat hanehenin, even if of Rabbinic origin, must be repeated in a situation of safeq (doubt): it is an independent obligation and not an addition to some other mitzvah. An integral part of the mitzvah of Talmud Torah involves recognition that Torah is G-d's and that we are allowed to partake in the pleasure of its study. Leaving out the bracha indicates that this relationship has been altered. In other words, the people at the time of the destruction did not simply sin and reject Torah authority. They ignored the Torah as a sign and a token of their unique relationship with God. They did not see in meditating on the meaning of Torah a privilege and a blessing from God. It was this attitude, according to Chazal, that caused the destruction of the land.
Gut Yomtov
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