Zos Chukas HaTorah: Ameilus, Taharas HaNefesh, and the Song of Torah

Transcript

This Torah class is brought to you by TorahAnytime.com. We just read this past Shabbos, Parshas Chukas. Chukas talks about the parah adumah. In the beginning of the parsha, it addresses the parah adumah, which is used to be metaher meitim, to be metaher those that have tumas meis. They touch the dead person, they become defiled in tumah, and the parah adumah, and the procedure of the parah adumah is to be metaher, to clean the person who has tumas meis. But the parsha does not begin with a discussion of parah adumah. The parsha begins addressing what it means to learn Torah and how one should learn Torah. Let's read the pasuk inside. Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe v'el Aharon leimor, Zos chukas haTorah. It does not say, Zos chukas haparah adumah. The parsha is referring to parah adumah. It's about the cleaning, v'tikanech achar habas. It's cleansing. It's all about cleaning from tumah. Yet the Torah begins, Zos chukas haTorah. Asher tzivah Hashem leimor, daber el Bnei Yisrael, v'yikchu eilecha parah adumah. Rashi points out that when it says in the pasuk, Adam ki yamus b'ohel, says Rashi, Ein haTorah niknes ela b'mi shemeimis atzmo aleha. The Torah—it's Adam ki yamus b'ohel; it refers to tumas ohel. Yet again, it's an analogy to Torah, that Adam ki yamus b'ohel—what ohel are we referring to? The ohel of Torah. And a person must be meimis atzmo b'ohalo shel Torah in order to achieve Torah. In order to be able to accomplish in Torah, you need Adam ki yamus b'ohel. Why is this limud in this parsha? Why are we learning Adam ki yamus b'ohel, kol haba l'ohel? Why over here? What's the zos chukas haTorah? The chukas haTorah—it should say, This is parah adumah. So the truth is that the Aruch HaShulchan speaks about it, and the Aruch HaShulchan has a pshat. Yet l'maaseh, the Rambam—there's an interesting Rambam I'd like to share with you. The Rambam says that all the inyan of taharah is a chok. All the inyan of taharah is a chok. Why? If a person is tamei, he goes into a mikvah, he becomes tahor. How does he become tahor? How does the person become tahor? What is it, dirt that he goes into the water and the water cleans him? Says the Rambam, it's a chok. Tumah and taharah is something which we don't have a full understanding of. Yet, says the Rambam, there is a remez. There is something that we could take out to understand from the inyan of tumah and taharah and mikvah that's metaher. Says the Rambam, כשם שמכוון ליבו ליטהר, כיוון שטבל טהר. ואף על פי שלא נתחדש בגופו דבר, כך מכוון לבו לטהר נפשו מטומאת הנפשות, שהן המחשבות העוון ודעות הרעות. כיוון שהסכים בלבו לפרוש מאותן העצות, והביא נפשו במי הדעת.

I'm going to translate word for word this Rambam, but it's important for me that you understand the question. Does everyone here understand the issue? The issue is, for some reason, the Torah speaks about chukas haTorah, and Adam ki yamus b'ohel, which is really tumas meis. Yet it's also referring to meimis atzmo b'ahalah shel Torah. How is it connected to parah adumah? That is the question. Zos chukas haTorah? This is the chok of the Torah? And the answer is, the Rambam seems to say that just like a person puts himself in a mikvah and he becomes tahor, and there's really not a complete understanding of that, how does that work? says the Rambam, it's because he's mechaven l'taher. It's because he has the want, the ratzon, to become tahor. So if a person puts himself in mei mei hadaas, the waters of knowledge, also becomes tahor. What are the mei mei hadaas, rabosai, nu? What is the waters of daas? Torah. So taharah is accomplished just like one immerses himself in mikvah, if he immerses himself in Torah. Now we understand, I believe, that that's pshat. Zos chukas haTorah. Just like parah adumah is metaher. The Torah. And if one dwells in Torah, he immerses himself in Torah. It's as if he immersed in a mikvah taharah. And that's why we learn, Adam ki yamus b'ohel. Adam ki yamus b'ohel, ein haTorah niknis ela b'mi shememis atzmo b'ohalah shel Torah. What does the word niknis mean? Simply, when we talk about niknis, we mean one achieves. One is achieving the Torah. One is a person, when he's meimis atzmo b'ohalah shel Torah, he is niknis; he gets the Torah. But actually, there could be a deeper understanding of the word niknis. What does it mean to be meimis atzmo? If someone asks you, what is it, a person, he's meimis, meimis, meimis atzmo. So simply it means that he kills himself, literally in toiling. It has to do with the amount of ameilus that he puts into it, right? There's a very famous story from the Chofetz Chaim. The Chofetz Chaim once addressed the words meimis atzmo b'ohalah shel Torah. Says the Chofetz Chaim, you know what the pshat is? And there's a story based on this pshat. The Chofetz Chaim did not want to take money from the yeshiva. Chofetz Chaim didn't want to earn from the money of the yeshiva. He didn't want to take, so he had a store. He had a store. Chofetz Chaim had a fruit store. And the wife ran it, and he learned. And one day, the fruits that were brought to the store were the wrong ones. The inventory was mixed up. So the Rebbetzin sent for the Chofetz Chaim to come quickly. Come, run, come! The Chofetz Chaim says, Send her back a message that I died. Tell her I died. Chofetz Chaim says to send such a message back? He ran back, and they tell the Rebbetzin that he died. She came running, yet she sees him over the Gemara learning. She says, Why did you tell me that you died? He says, That's the pshat in the Chazal. Chazal are saying, Ein haTorah niknis ela b'mi shemeimis atzmoi. This hour I'm learning, I'm dead. Tell me, if you needed a ride to the airport, would you walk into the Beit HaKvarot? Would you walk into a beis hakvaros and say, Hey, you're just—

Slaying, you're doing nothing. Maybe a comment, help me out. And the answer is, of course not. The person's not alive. In order to achieve in Torah, the world has to be dead to you. You know, when a person sits and learns, a person sits and learns, the whole world is coming to him through the phone. Everything that's going on everywhere, all over the world. The way to really learn Torah is to shut the world out. I don't want to say, to use a stronger language, the world should be dead at that hour that you're learning. And that's how a person is koneh Torah. This is what the Chofetz Chaim was saying. Chofetz Chaim is saying, Ein haTorah niknis ela b'mi shemeimis atzmo aleha. But rabosai, that's a drash. It's a nice pshat. What's the simple pshat in this Gemara, in this Chazal, Ein haTorah niknis ela b'mi shemeimis atzmo aleha? He doesn't say meimis. What does it say? Meimis atzmo. What does it mean to be meimis atzmo? You know, there's an interesting Gemara in Mesechtes Taanis. The Gemara says that Alexander Mokdon asked the chachmei haNegev. They were the chachamim. I want to ask you a few philosophical questions. Question number one. What should a person do if he wants to have a life? You know, most people, when they go on big vacations, that's the life. That's the life. He's having a life. He's making a life. You know what the Chachmei HaNegev answered? Yamis atzmi. He should kill himself. First Gemara. It's a Gemara Mesechtes Taanis. Yamis atzmi, says the Alexander moiptin to the Chachamim, what should a person do if he wants to kill himself? And the answer is, no, yichyeh atzmi. What does that mean? What does it mean? And the answer is, man is all about atzmi. It's all about, I need and I want, and this is for me. And the more a person is atzmi, self-centered, the more he cares only about atzmi, the more his life is empty, meaningless, and dead. You see many people that they're enjoying themselves and they're making money. Inside, they're dead. Inside, it's a whole different story. Lavish lifestyle doesn't mean life. Doesn't mean the person is experiencing inside. Enjoyment of life. Yomis atzmai. If you stop being self-centered, if you meimis, if you, so to speak, there's an expression in English, kill the music. If you kill the atzmai, if you stop it, and you start living beyond yourself, you start living for something bigger than yourself, and your needs and your wants, that's when life begins. You know, rabbosai, Torah is chayim. Eitz chayim hi, Torah is life. Tonight we're going to discuss what it means to live. What is life? What is it that Torah is the life of a Jew? What does it mean, life? You know, Chazal tell us something very interesting. Chazal tell us that Parah Adumah is Moshe Rabbeinu's. The first Parah Adumah was made by Moshe Rabbeinu, and forever the Parah Adumah is Moshe Rabbeinu's Parah Adumah. Le'olam hi nikreis al shemecha. Rashi quotes it.

Chazal, porosh oso Moshe. You know something also interesting? Moshe Rabbeinu knew the reason and the explanation of Parah Adumah. Lechani megaleh. Chazal say that HaKadosh Baruch Hu tells him, V'yikchu eilecha, to you, Parah Adumah. What is eilecha? You, because you, Moshe, will know what the Parah Adumah is all about. Nobody else will understand it. Shlomo HaMelech said, Echkamah v'hi rechokah mimeni. I was wise, yet I still didn't understand a lot. There was a lot of things. Chazal say, what's it referring to? What did Shlomo HaMelech say he didn't understand? The Parah Adumah, the secret of Parah Adumah. You know what Korach started his fight? What made Korach begin the war against Moshe Rabbeinu? Does anybody know? Chazal tell us, it's Medrash Pliah. Ma ra'ah Korach lachlok al Moshe? He saw Parah Adumah. It's a very interesting Medrash. There was something about Parah Adumah that this, this became the reason why Korach started to fight against Moshe Rabbeinu. In the past, I've said many pshatim in this. The first pshat I said was, and I believe it's a very nice pshat. You know, the parah adumah was to be mechaper on the eigel. Rashi brings it. The eigel was the cow, the eigel that they brought to switch Moshe Rabbeinu. It was supposed to be the tachlif of Moshe Rabbeinu. Now, who would start up with Moshe Rabbeinu? You gotta be, you gotta be terrified in your mind. Who? I'm starting with Moshe Rabbeinu. But once Korach saw that they made an eigel and then there was a kaparah afterwards, all right. A person usually does not go into a fight, so to speak, unless he thinks, you know, all right, it's not the end of the world. There's a way out, right? Another pshat I wanted to say was that the parah adumah is a sod of Torah. Korach was a tremendous talmid chacham. Korach was a genius in learning. He was a big—he was a navi. So why is he fighting Moshe Rabbeinu? And the answer is because Moshe got parts of Torah that he could not get. Korach, just sit and learn. What are you jealous of? What are you— I see you need a nice pshat. I see you need a good pshat to pick you up. You ready? Oh yeah, why not? I'll tell you a nice pshat, rabosai. Listen to a meyridike pshat. We always think that Korach was this unbelievable troublemaker, this unbelievable bad— Individual. The truth is, rabboisai, Korach was a gaon, a genius in learning. Korach was mi'nosei ha'aron; he carried the aron. Korach was a navi. There's a very interesting Zohar. The Zohar says that one of the things that Korach had an agenda against was Shabbos. His agenda was Shabbos. He was against the Shabbos. And the sefarim are very involved to explain, what is the Shabbos, Korach? What happened here? Now every good Sefardic Jew knows that a talmid chacham is bechinas Shabbos. And since he was arguing on Moshe Rabbeinu, he was arguing on Shabbos, maybe. But let me tell you a little bit more, rabboisai. Listen carefully. Korach wanted avodas Beis HaMikdash. Korach wanted avodas Beis HaMikdash. Correct, everybody? Kehunah. He wanted that. Every Jew in his home on Shabbos has the replica of the avodas Beis HaMikdash.

Tell me, are we able to live without a Beis Hamikdash? Living thousands of years without it. Are we able to live without Shabbos? You can't live without Shabbos. Reb Chaim Volozhin says, we see an unbelievable thing. There's two parts to the Beis Hamikdash. There's the physical, and then there's the eternal Beis Hamikdash, Veshachanti b'socham. We're able to live from within. A person is able to live from within. A person is able to have hashraas haShechinah. He's able to have a Beis Hamikdash. And you know when the greatest moment that this hashraas haShechinah, replica of the Beis Hamikdash, takes place? On Shabbos. You know, the Maharil brings down that a table of Shabbos should be a four-legged table. You shouldn't, you know, today we have the tables that in the middle there's a stand. Says the Maharil, it's brought in Shulchan Aruch, the Rema brings it down. Why should you have a four-legged table? Because the home, like the Beis Hamikdash, has a shulchan, and the shulchan had four legs. You want to hear further? Sefarim write that all the avodah, so to speak, that we do at the Shabbos table is Beis Hamikdash replica. We make Kiddush. There's such a thing as nesachim on the mizbeach. We pour wine. Breads is the lechem hapanim. In Ari, minhagei Ari, how many breads should you have? You have twelve. Why? Lechem hapanim. Lechem hapanim was twelve. Now, in the halacha shiur, we could talk about the breakoff bread. You know, those breakoff, is it considered like one? Is it considered like twelve? And everyone is smiling. Good, I got your attention. All right. We continue with what, rabosai? What do we continue with? We have meat. Meat is what? Is the korban. What else do we have? We have zmiros, the Leviim. We light the candles, the menorah. This is all in תורת הארי, that the Shabbos table is the replica of the Beis Hamikdash. Just like a Yid did avodah in the Beis Hamikdash, a Yid is able to do on Shabbos avodah. Now here, you ready, rabosai? Fish. How come there was no hakravah? How come in the Beis Hamikdash there was no korban from fish? Fish? Oh, you mean the water, the ocean, the fish. And by the way, you remind me because I forgot the salt. Forgive me, which is the big one in halacha. Forgive me. You know, as I say, it's late in the evening. We have salt, and why do we put salt on the—right? We put salt because it's doimeh to the salt that is bad, the korbanos. Hey, it's all there. How come we don't have karbonos from fish? It's a great question. I don't have—yes. You see, it was worth for me to call me a jolt for this little boy to answer this question. But it better be a good answer. Go ahead. What do you have for me? It's like hard to find them, like it'd be harder, like, to find a kind of fish thing. Not so hard. You never heard of a gefilte fish? Go to the store. No, I'm kidding. The question is a very good question, rabosai. The question is, why do we not have a korban of fish? Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the tzaddikim go into the fish. It's called maichal tzaddikim al pi Zohar. So an animal is a bahami. Animal is animal, not human. Maybe fish has neshamos of tzaddikim in it. It's a good question on your own time. The bottom line, so to speak, what are we trying to bring out from all of this? Korach was fighting Shabbos. You want avodas Beis HaMikdash. You could have avodas Beis HaMikdash. How do you have it? Shabbos. Why are you fighting for the avodah in the Beis HaMikdash? You have the avodah every—

So what's the issue? And I'll tell you the difference. Moshe Rabbeinu had a middah k'koach. You know what Moshe Rabbeinu was all about? Moshe Rabbeinu was all about yomis atzmai. It wasn't about him. There was no him. He was an eved. He was anav me'od mikol adam asher al pnei ha'adamah. How does one achieve Torah? He has to be yomis atzmai. Tell me, rabosai, what did Moshe Rabbeinu do for forty days and forty nights when he was being mekabel the Torah? He didn't eat. He didn't sleep. He was meimis atzmai. He was mekayem the meimis atzmai b'oholei shel Torah. How many days did he do that for? Forty. In Zohar it's brought down that forty has to do with the forty se'ah mikvah. We find by the mabul also, it rained for forty days and forty nights because mikvah, there needed a cleansing process, a cleansing process. So you have the what? The forty days and the forty nights of yomis atzmai. And that's how Moshe Rabbeinu was able to be mekayem the inyan of Kabbalas HaTorah. Torah requires that a person should be pure. Torah requires taharah, purity. And when a person is pure, he will be zocheh to be mekabel the Torah. One of the rules of the parah adumah is, v'nasan mayim chayim el keli. You put mayim, water, chayim, which is life, el keli, into a kli shares, into a pot, into a vessel. The Torah, rabboisai, is nimshal to what? To water. Now you're starting to see the taharah. Tonight's shiur, rabboisai, I'm trying to introduce to you that today we don't have korbanos, and everyone looks for ways on how to be metaher, past, mechaper on past things that he did. The greatest way a person could be mechaper on the past, on things that he did, is through Torah. When a person immerses himself in Torah, when a person dwells in Torah, he's able to become, as pure. There's a purity. Zos chukas haTorah. It's chukas haTorah. Parah adumah and Torah does the same thing. It's metaher the person. You know, Zohar speaks of certain sins that there's no kaparah for. There's no kaparah. There's no way to be mechaper. Yet, we all know the rule, and even the Zohar quotes it: Ein davar ha'omed bifnei ha'teshuva. There is nothing that cannot be erased and cleaned with teshuva. So the contradiction is obvious. Baalei halacha, the Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Moshe Feinstein, zichrono livracha, has a very famous teshuva that when does the Zohar say these aveiros do not have kaparah? It's without Torah. But if a person learns Torah, he has a kaparah on everything. And Rav Moshe, the Rosh Yeshiva says, how much Torah do you have to learn? How much Torah? How much does a person have to learn to get a kaparah? He writes a teshuva to a bachur in yeshiva that's writing, spilling out his heart that he did things in the past that he doesn't know how to—yeitzer hara, he doesn't know how to get out of it. So Rav Moshe tells him, there's no such a thing as not possible to do teshuva. If you learn two Mishnayos a day, add a third one. Add a third one.

A little bit of Torah goes a long way. A little bit of Torah goes a long way. Now, rabosai, let me go to the heart of how does a person get a kaparah? What is kaparah? Okay. Yom Kippur, rabosai, it says in the pasuk, Ki bayom hazeh yechaper aleichem, letaher eschem, mikol chatoseichem lifnei Hashem titharu. What's the difference between kaparah and taharah? It's two things: Ki bayom hazeh yechaper aleichem, letaher eschem. And the answer is, a kaparah is sometimes when the person needs a tikkun, not to get the punishment. That's kaparah. Korban is a kaparah. Is korban a taharah? No. Why? Because korban achieves kaparah for the onesh. But then there's in every aveirah a staining of the soul, a staining of the inside of the person that needs taharah. That needs taharah. That needs purity. How does one achieve purity? The pasuk says, Lifnei Hashem titharu. When you stand in front of the Ribono Shel Olam. You become pure. Purity has to do with Shechina k'negdo, when the Shechina is in front of you. What is the thing that, say, Chazal tell us about Torah? If someone learns Torah by night, no? What's the lashon? Shechina k'negdo. Taharah, the purity. Rabosai, the world outside is not so pure. The world outside is filled with yichiatzmi. You know, the more a person lives in the world of himself, the more he lives in a world away from the Ribono Shel Olam. What is your focus? What does a person look at? What is he focused on? There are people who look in the mirror, and it's all about themselves. Then there are people who look ahead, and what do they see? Lifnei Hashem. They're standing in front of the Ribono Shel Olam. Lifnei Hashem, the Shechina k'negdo. Stop. Huh? Stop now. Rabosai, zois chukas haTorah. Moshe Rabbeinu understood what taharah is. Moshe Rabbeinu understood what it means, Lifnei Hashem titharu. Moshe understood what it means, mei mis'atzmei. It wasn't Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe Rabbeinu lived Torah. He lived the Ribbono Shel Olam. A person could achieve tremendous taharah of lifnei Hashem. The outside world looks, like I told you, it looks like it's lavish, and a person's having a great life. You know what's really going on inside? The beis hamikdash from within, the Shechinah, the Ribbono Shel Olam's veshachanti b'socham, is not there. So when you're meimis the atzmei, what do you have? You have the hashra'as haShechinah from within, which brings life, which brings, etzchayim hi l'machazikim bah. Does anybody know what the translation l'machazikim bah means? Huh? Grabbing. Who said the word grabbing on? Why do I want the word grabbing on? Do you know what I want? Torah slips away. Moments of time of Torah slip away very quickly. The world...

It's going to drag you away from Torah. Life is going to drag you away from Torah. You know what you need to do? You need to grab. You need to machzik chazakah. What does chazakah mean? To grab on tight. The Rambam speaks about something called Kesser Torah. And the Rambam says, how does one get Kesser Torah? If a person is careful not even to miss one night, lo ya'abeid layla achas, says the Rambam, even one night, that's where you get Kesser Torah. It's not about the learning. It's about the hardship. It's about the meimis atzmai. Remember I told you from the Chofetz Chaim, what's meimis atzmai? I don't exist to the outside world at the hour that I learn. That's called meimis, meimis atzmai. And that's how a person is zocheh that the Shechinah is connected. When a person learns Torah in a way that it's hard for him. Let me tell you, rabosai, there is nobody, including me, that does not have hardship in learning Torah. There's no such thing. Adam la'amal yulad. A person was created to work hard. A person needs to toil. And when a person toils, he could toil in the whole world, and what does he have from that? Nothing at the end of the day. Orikeitoilin Torah, l'maal pi, and that's the adam what he was created for. You know, a person is not happy unless he achieves what his tachlis is. In order for a person to feel fulfilled, he needs to do what he was created for. You know, you would think to yourself, okay, this is 20 minutes of learning. Okay, I missed it. It's going to affect you on the inside, because that 20 minutes that you were kovea for Torah is your tafkid and your tachlis. There is nothing that could supplement, supplement the taanug, the oneg of Torah. With this, I want to—I know, I don't know how much more time I have. Do I have another two minutes? Okay. I'm going to tell you something beautiful, something so profound. On the pasuk, Zos chukas haTorah, there's a medrash. Actually, it's also based on a Gemara in Sotah, daf lamed hei, that Dovid HaMelech was punished because he said the word zemiros hayu li chukecha. It's in kapitel kuf yud tes. Zemiros hayu li chukecha. Zemiros? Zemiros? It's a song. You know what a song—does anybody know what a song? It's nice. It's, it's—can I use a Yiddish word? No, you all survive? A gishmak. It's a gishmaka thing. So Dovid HaMelech came and said, Torah is gishmak. It's beautiful. It's not only a mistake. The Gemara calls it chata; he sinned. And the Ribono Shel Olam paid him back a tikkun. He needed a tikkun, and by what? I'll give him something that even the children would not make a mistake. Something that tinokos shel beis rabban know, he didn't know. And what was it? When he brought back the Aron, the aron, they brought back the Aron in Tanach. He brought it back on an agalah, on a wagon. Don't you know, bakaseif yisa'u, that it had to be what? On the shoulder. Bakaseif. On the shoulder you have to carry it. You don't carry it on a U-Haul. Says Reb Yonason Eibshitz in Ya'aros Dvash, why was this the punishment? Why was this the tikkun for Dovid HaMelech saying, Zmiros hayu li chukecha? And the answer is, zmirah...

Yisoyli chukecha takes away from the adam kiyamus. And it's toiling, and it's hard. Bakasef yiso means what? Torah needs bakasef. You got to bend your shoulder to carry it. It's not an easy thing. There's no easy route. You can't pay—forgive me, what's the name of the taxi service today? I'm living still—Uber? That's what it's called, Uber? Oh, okay, I'm sorry. Really, it's Uber? All right. A person takes an Uber, and he says, Go... That's not how it works. It's not a sailing smooth. It's rough. Bakasef yiso. And he, because he says, Miros hayu li chukecha, Rabbeinu Shalom says Yaaris dvash was teaching him this lesson, that it's not easy. Rabosai, kovea itin laTorah is not an easy thing. Tell me. And this, I would love—you, I see I have plenty more time, obviously. How does this work? You just keep on going till they pull the plug on you. All right, you know I could do this all night, so let's go. Let me tell you over something very interesting. Is not the Torah called a shirah? V'atam kisvu lachem es hashirah hazos, writing a sefer. So what's wrong if he says, Zmiros hayu li chukecha? What's wrong if he says, Zmiros hayu li chukecha? So what? Torah shirah. Unless you say zimiros is one thing and shirah is another thing. Yeah, meila. Let me tell you over a Gemara in Eruvin, daf yud ches. Oysei zmiros balayla, those that make song at night. You know, rabosai, we're all composers tonight. How are we composers? Does anybody know? By sitting in the shiur and learning. Oysei zmiros balayla. Learning at night is called making a song, making a shirah. Kumi, roni balayla. The Rambam quotes it: Ein rinah shel Torah ela balayla. The song of Torah is at night. So then what's wrong if he said— You hear the kash? Everyone tell me the kash. What's the kash? So what, Dovid HaMelech said wrong? As a matter of fact, who learned by night? He did. That's the story, the story in the Gemara Brachos. Who learned by night? It was him. He was oysei zmiros balayla. You know who asked this question? Marsha. Marsha said, I don't understand what's going on here. Dovid HaMelech was oysei zmiros balayla. He made song at night. He composed songs. You know, I don't know if Sefardic and Ashkenazic liturgy is the same, but in the Hoshanas, Ashkenaz has something unique, beautiful passage. He goes through all the avois, and their ma'alos, and we ask, Ribono Shel Olam, hoshana, help me in the merit of the avois. When it speaks about Dovid HaMelech, the words of the yoshanes is, Hoshana, l'man Dovid mecharker, hamelamed Torah b'chol klei shir, that he teaches Torah with all the musical instruments. Dovid HaMelech composed beautiful, beautiful song. The Medrash tells us that Dovid HaMelech asked that his Tehillim should also be Torah. It's a question if he was answered or not answered. It's a discussion for a different time. But that's part of the zmiros, Hayeli chukecha, the song, the chukim. So something is not adding up here. Did Dovid do something wrong by saying song and Torah? I want to tell you something even more. The Rokeach says that Matan Torah was with music. So mefurash.

The Rokeach says that, you ever see a cantata? You know what a cantata is? Imagine Hashem is saying, Anochi Hashem Elokecha, and there's music in the background. Yeah. Now, I don't know, today's music maybe is the Kolos of Brokim I hear. Maybe, I don't know, the type of music that, you know, you start to hear lately in the... maybe it's referring to the Kolos of Brokim. Either way, rabosai, there was music. I want to tell you even more. The Rokeach says that musical instruments that were given at Matan Torah to Moshe Rabbeinu with the Torah. And those instruments, says the Rokeach—you know, maybe I should tell you who the Rokeach is. The Rokeach isn't just the author of a book with nice stories. The Rokeach was one of the Rishonim, like the Ramban, and the Rambam, we have the Rokeach. Says the Rokeach that as Hashem gave Torah to Moshe Rabbeinu, He gave him musical instruments. What happened to these musical instruments, says the Rokeach? No, it went to the Beis Hamikdash. Those were the keilim that were used. There were many instruments in the Beis Hamikdash. Says the Rokeach, what happened to those instruments? From the Churban Habayis, they buried those instruments. They remained underground. It's interesting. The Klei HaMikdash went, a lot of it, to Rome. The musical instruments got lost, so to speak, in the ground. They got buried. What do we see from here? The power of music and Torah is very much connected. The Gra speaks that teshuva and negina are very close to each other. You know, rabosai, Shabbos is a time of teshuva, Shabbos, all the Rishonim and all the Acharonim. It's even brought in halacha that even if a person does avodah zarah k'dor Enosh, if he keeps the Shabbos, he has teshuva. Music, the zmiros of Shabbos, is a big part of what Shabbos is all about. Says the Gra that negina and teshuva are very much connected. What is it that connects? And the answer is music. Music of the soul is able to bring a person directly to the Ribono Shel Olam. It's me'orer in the soul, in the heart, a connection to Ribono Shel Olam. The Chasam Sofer said that he'd be willing to give up a big part of his learning to reach koach hanegina, and I believe they say the same from the Gra. What neginah is he referring to? And the answer is, there's a part of Torah. There's a part of Torah from within that stirs the soul to become very connected to the Ribono Shel Olam. Kumi roni balaylah. There's a rinah shel Torah. Rav, I'm going to make a final conclusion, and that is... We're going to have to end this shiur. The rav is here. Let's take out one lesson, rabosai. Every night that you learn, it's not easy. It's never easy. Torah takes a tremendous toil. It's hard, b'kosef. You've got to bend your shoulders to learn Torah. And it's every night, not to miss. And the way to do it is shut the world out. Nefesh atzmoi yoleha. You've got to shut the whole world out. When somebody comes over to you, you're talking to a dead man. Chofetz Chaim, you're talking to a dead man. Here he's asking me, I'm sorry, I'm not...

Hypothetical, but the truth is, this is the way a person reaches tohirah, tahirah, the tahirah of Torah. We all have things. You've just experienced another Torah class, brought to you by TorahAnytime.com.