25 Feb HOW TO TASTE THE SWEETNESS OF TORAH STUDY

Rav Yitzchok Zilberstein,
shlit”a, posed a very
contemporary question
to Rav Aharon Leib
Shteinman, zt”l, zy”a.
He asked, “Since the
Torah is described
as, ‘Misukim m’devash v’nofes tzufim
– It is sweeter than honey and the most
delectable honeycombs,’ then how come
so many people do not taste this honey?”
Rav Zilberstein continued, “Countless
individuals sit in a lecture or by a Gemora
class and their eyes are darting furtively
toward the clock to see when the session
will be over. Many boys sit and study day
after day, for eight hours a day, but if they’re
honest with themselves they feel that it’s a
daily grind. They don’t at all experience the
aforementioned sweetness.”
Rav Shteinman gave a surprising answer.
Every morning, we say birchas haTorah,
the blessing regarding Torah study. This
berachah is one of the few Biblical berachos.
(The only other ones are the berachos of
bentching.) In our blessing on the Torah,
we say the request, “V’ha’arev na, Hashem
Elokeinu, es diveri Soros’cha b’finu –
Please, Hashem, make sweet the words of

the Torah in our mouths.” Rav Shteinman
maintained that many people say this
blessing early in the morning before they
are fully awake. They therefore don’t say it
with enough thought and concentration. He
proposed that if we heighten our kavannah,
our concentration in this supplication, we
will see a difference in the joy that we
experience from our Torah learning.
I would like to humbly add some thoughts to
Rav Shteinman’s counsel. It is a known fact
that the yeitzer hara, the evil inclination, is
selective about which areas he strives to get
us to stray. For example, the relationship
he tries the hardest to wreck is the one we
have with our spouse. This is since it is this
relationship that the Shechinah, the Divine
Presence in the home depends upon. As we
are taught, “Ish v’isha shalom beineihem,
Shechinah shruya beineihem – A husband
and wife, if peace dwells with them, the
Divine Presence resides in their midst.”
So too, an adolescent is challenged by the
yeitzer hara most ferociously when it comes
to honoring their parents for at that stage of
life that is their most important relationship.
But, without question, the mitzvah that
the yeitzer hara is the most focused

upon to cause us
to sin with, is the
mitzvah of learning
Torah. After all, the
Torah is the yeitzer
hara’s nemesis.
As the Gemora in
Masechtas Kiddushin
categorically teaches
us, “Barasi yeitzer
hara, barasi Torah
tavlin lah – I created
the yeitzer hara and
I created Torah as
the antidote to it.”
Therefore, the yeitzer
hara will use its most
clever wiles to stop us from learning Torah.
This is why so many people feel that Torah
is a burden. Because the yeitzer hara is
working overtime to distract us from the
sweetness of Torah.
I would like, therefore, to propose another
area of our prayers which will greatly help
in our Torah efforts. Within the Yehi ratzon
we say in the birchas hashachar, we state,
“V’al tishlet banu yeitzer hara – Let not the
evil inclination rule over us.” We should
intently pray to Hashem that the yeitzer
hara not mess around with and disrupt our
Torah enjoyment.
Yet another suggestion to elevate our
Torah experience is to train ourselves
to learn Torah lishmah, for its own sake.
In the sixth perek of Pirkei Avos, Rav
Meir succinctly advises, “Kol ha’oseik
baTorah lishmah, zoche lid’vorim harbeih
– Whoever is occupied with Torah for Its
own sake will merit many things.” Thus,
we see that the many rewards of Torah,
like Its being sweet, is dependent upon
learning Torah with the right intentions.
We can ensure that we do this by having
in mind, before we start learning, that we
want to fulfill the mitzvah of v’dibarta
bam, to speak about them. The Ran, in
the first perek of Nedarim, states v’dibarta
bam refers to the mitzvah to study Torah.
We can add to this the Chassidishe idea,
“V’la’asos nachas ruach l’Yotz’reinu,”
that we are learning Torah to “Give nachas
to our Creator.”
Here’s another thought. You could have
a $2000 bottle of aged wine. If you pour
it into a glass with soap bubbles and
residual grime, it will not be very tasty.
In the same way, if our heads are full of
forbidden images and immoral thoughts,
the mind cannot experience the sweetness
of Torah. This is one of the reasons that
we say na’aseh v’nishma, we will do
and we will listen. Listening is learning
the Torah, when we listen to the Word of

Hashem. But first we have to do, and that
doing is to ensure that we have a clean mind
and heart. It is only then that we truly can
taste the delectable taste of Torah.
Finally, we know that the backdrop for
the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai was
smoke, blackness, and chilling thunder.
The obvious question is, Why wasn’t the
Torah given with a backdrop of light, with a
blazing sun and strobes of brightness? The
Tosefos HaRosh answers that it should have
been given amid a brilliant light. However,
we didn’t deserve that because we would sin
afterwards with the golden calf. Hashem
only punishes for the sins that we do now,
but to enjoy the special light and sweetness
of Torah, we need to practice what we learn.
If a person comes to a shiur and then goes
home and shouts at his wife, if a boy sits
over the Gemora and then is chutzpadik to
his parents, they will not taste the eternal
flavor of the Torah.
May we put these ideas into practice and in
that merit may we experience the sweetness
of the Torah with long life, good health, and
everything wonderful.