Rav Yosef Karo rules based on Sanhedrin 7a that a person’s judgment commences with Divrei Torah. The Ohr HaChaim, in his sefer Rishon LeTzion on Yoreh De’a (siman 245), comments on the Pesak Halocha of the Shulchon Aruch that the reason for this is that the verdict of the judgment varies according to whether or not the guilty party knew that the transgression he was committing was forbidden by the Torah or not. They therefore cross-examine the accused, asking him if he studied Torah or not, to see what he knew to be forbidden or not. If he was a Talmid Chochom, his verdict and judgment is different from one who was unlearned.
I have seen proof for my position, says the Ohr HaChaim, in a story about Rav Yehuda HeChassid regarding a wealthy man who used to shave his beard in a forbidden manner using a razor, and who was warned by Rav Yehuda HeChassid against this practice. When he was niftar, Rav Yehuda HeChassid recalled his soul. The dead man stood up and recounted his judgment, describing how he was asked if he had studied Torah. When he affirmed that he was literate in Chumash, they brought before him a sefer, opened it and asked him to read what was written there. He read the pesukim regarding the prohibition against shaving the peyos and the beard. We see, concludes the Ohr HaChaim, that before he was judged for his transgression they checked to see whether he had studied it before and this is as we explained.
The entire story as cited by the Ohr HaChaim in Rishon LeTzion is found in the Sefer HaGan (in the chapter for the fourth day) from a handwritten manuscript by Rav Zalman the son of Rav Yehuda HeChassid, who relates:
My father and master the Chassid told me that there was once a wealthy man in Speyer who used to shave off his beard using razors. My father admonished him and he did not pay any attention to my father’s rebuke, because he would retort that he was a dainty istenis and that the beard bothered him. My father warned him that his end would be bitter, that after his death demonic beings like cows and oxen would run over him, beard and peyos, and that this is the punishment for those who shave off their beards and peyos, because the pasuk says, “Do not shave the corners of your facial hair” – lo sakifu pe’as rosh’chem velo sas’chisu, whose roishei teivos (initial letters) form the acrostic spelling poros – “oxen” or “cows” [pe’as rosh’chem velo sash’chisu = poros].
When the wealthy man passed away and all the important people from Speyer sat by his body, my father wrote a Divine Name on parchment and placed it upon the dead man’s body. My father asked him what happened to his soul after death and he told my father, “After my soul left my body a great demon, like an ox or a cow, came and filled a vessel with tar and pitch and trapped my soul therein, and I was unable to escape. Then the attribute of judgment came and took this vessel from the demonic ox with my soul trapped inside, unable to flee, and they brought me before the stronghold of all souls. There, a heavenly voice rang out, asking me if I had ever studied Torah and was learned in knowing how to read. I affirmed that I had and could and they immediately brought me a Chumash and opened it and I found that it opened up straight to the pasuk about the mitzva forbidding the cutting of the beard and shaving of the peyos and I had no answer for them in my defense. Immediately, I heard them declare the verdict that my soul was to be placed in the lowest of all levels.”
