Spend Time Wisely

“And You shall command the Children of Israel to bring to you pure olive oil, which is beaten, for the light, to light a eternal light.”

How do we reach a high level in Torah study? I hear young children in school who complain that it is difficult, but are not willing to spend much time in trying to understand what they were taught that day. However, when they get home, they will spend hours trying to get a ball through a hoop or trying to learn how to spin a basketball on their index finger.

The problem is that we spend a lot of our energies pursuing the pleasures of this world and wonder why we don’t achieve the levels in the study of Torah that we desire. We have to understand what the pleasures of this world really add up to.

Chacham Yosef Chaim, ’a”h, tells us that when someone does something wrong, the pleasure is for that moment only. It is like a mirror. Once you walk away from the mirror, everything is gone. The pleasure from a transgression is only fleeting and is soon over.

There is a story in Tanna Debei Eliyahu Zota (2, 22) about one of the students of Rebbe Akiva who had 24 disciples himself. Once when he was in the marketplace he saw a beautiful Jewish woman whose profession was a very unholy one. The satan worked on him and he made an appointment to meet with her that night.

That evening, before the appointed time, out of her excitement, she went onto the roof of the Beth Hamidrash to look at him before he came to visit her. She saw him like a general with the Malach Gavriel standing at his right. She said, “Woe to the woman who causes such a man to sin. What punishment in Gehinnam would come upon her?”, because he seemed to her like an angel, because he was so great. Right then and there, she made up her mind to save both him and her from Gehinnam, by not allowing it to happen and to leave her profession altogether.

When he came to her that night, she asked him if it was worth losing the life in ’Olam Habba for an hour of pleasure in this world. The Satan, however, was still playing on him to cause him to sin. She persevered, however, and caused him to lose all interest. A Bat Kol then stated that this man and this woman both have a place prepared for them in the world to come. There is no limit to the extent to which the evil inclination can play on a person, in order to ensure that he does not grow in Torah.

It sasy in the Gemara (Shabbat 33b),that the Romans wanted to kill Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, because it was reported to them that he spoke in a denigrating manner about them. What he said was that anything positive that they built or did, was for own their own benefit.

So he and his son hid in the Beit Midrash and later in a cave. They covered themselves with sand the whole day, and studied Torah, and only when they prayed they would dress up in their clothes, but immediately afterwards they would once again remove them so that the clothes would not get worn.

They were in the cave for 12 years. Then they stayed there one more year, till a Bat Kol told them that they could come out.

Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair, the son in law of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, heard that they had come out and went to greet him and took him to the bath house. He massaged his flesh and saw that his skin was in a very bad state (cracked) because of the sand. Rabbi Pinchas started crying and it is said that the salt of his tears fell on Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai’s skin and he cried out because the salt hurt his wounds. Rabbi Pinchas said, “Woe to me that I see you in such a condition”. Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai replied, “How fortunate you are to see me like this, because, if not, it would have meant that I had not attained the level that I have reached”.

It says in Keter Tzaddik that it is because of the harship and pain of staying in the cave, that Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai knew all the secrets of the Torah.

It says in Ben Ish Hai that since one of the names for the Torah is Ohr ( כי נר מצוה ותורה אור [Mishlei 6:23]) and the Torah was given after 40 days, which is hinted at in the word Lammaor, which is LaOr מ’ (40) — the Torah was given on the 40th day.

This is a hint to the study of the Torah. Who can reach high levels of Torah study? We learn the answer from the Pasuk:

שֶׁמֶן זַיִת זָךְ כָּתִית לַמָּאוֹר pure olive oil, which is beaten, for the light.

Only one who breaks himself over the study of the Torah, is the one who merits to reach a high level in his Torah studies. In order to do this one must drive the evil inclination away and devote his efforts, in purity, to the study of Torah.

The Keter Tzaddik mentions that the study of Torah will bring the the Geullah (redemption). The Ba’al Hatturim mentions that the Gematria of כָּתִית (beaten) is 830, which is the total number of years that the first and second Temples lasted. The first lasted 410 years, whereas the second one lasted 420 years.

Through כָּתִית (beaten) there will be לַמָּאוֹר (light). The third Beit Hammikdash will be built with complete illumination, which will last forever, as it says, נֵר תָּמִֽיד, ‘the candle will always be there’.

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Rabbi Ya’aqob Menashe is a renowned author and lecturer, whose Shiurim continue to inspire thousands around the world. Many can be seen at www.NonstopTorah.com. His daily Torah Minutes are eagerly anticipated by thousands every morning. They can be seen at www.ATorahMinute.com  Rabbi Menashe is the spiritual leader of Midrash BEN ISH HAI. More information is available at the Midrash website,  www. Midrash.org.