Exile to the place of Torah and learning for the correct reason.
Another explanation of the Ohr Hachaim is based on the Mishna (Avos 4:14), which says that a person should exile himself to a place of Torah. Chazal tell us that the Chachamim of the times of the Gemara would all travel far from home to learn Torah until one person would travel six months in each direction in order to spend one day learning.
This is not only advice from Chazal and their command but also a practical point. A person who is at home can become busy with the matters of his home. By traveling far from home, his mind is free for learning and only learning. He must leave his parents’ house and travel far away to learn Torah.
אִם בְחֻקֹתַּׁי תֵלֵכוּ – if you shall travel far away to understand and know Torah.
וְאֶת מִצְוֹתַּׁי תִשְמְרוּ – and you shall guard my commandments. The Gemara (Shabbos 31b) writes, Rabbi Yanai announced, ‘What a pity it is for those people who make a gate for their homes, when they don’t have a home.’ This is an allusion to those who study Torah, toiling in it with all of their might, yet have no Fear of Heaven. The Torah is a gate to Fear of Heaven, and if they build the gate, they should ensure that they have a home to enter. The true purpose of learning Torah is to understand the Halacha and know how to live.
If a person travels far to learn Torah, and the purpose of his study is וְאֶת מִצְוֹתַי תִשְמְרוּ – and you will guard my commandments, וַּׁעֲשִיתֶם אֹתָם – and you will perform them. He wishes to follow all of the Mitzvos of the Torah, and he learns in order to do so.
The Ohr Hachaim adds, based on the Gemara, another point. The Gemara (Berachos 17a) writes about someone who learns Torah with ulterior motivations, that it would be better if he had not been born. Tosfos asks, did we not find a Gemara (Pesachim 50b) that it is worthwhile for a person to study and perform Mitzvos even when his motivations are not pure, because he will change his motivations with his actions – from the impure motivations, pure motivations will emerge. Why are we so quick to dismiss the work of someone whose motivations are impure?
Tosfos explains that the impure motivation that we can accept as a stepping stone to impure motivation, is that of someone who wishes to learn in order to receive honor in this world. Although it would be best if his reason for learning was to draw close to Hashem, even if his motivation is to derive honor as a Talmid Chacham, it is also permitted. However, if the purpose of his learning is לקנתר - to tease others, his learning is worthless, and we would be better off had he not been born in the first place. Learning Torah as it is supposed to be learned, is only when it is done לשמה – for its sake. This means that the person learns in order to fulfill what he has learned, and he needs to know more and more in order to have a better and greater understanding of his obligations.
אִם בְחֻקֹתַּׁי תֵלֵכוּ וְאֶת מִצְוֹתַּׁי תִשְמְרוּ – If you shall walk in my statutes, and you do so followed by a fulfillment of My commandments, which shows that the learning was done for the correct reasons, then וַעֲשִיתֶם אֹתָם – you shall merit to do them. The Torah, when it is learned correctly, can protect a person from doing aveiros. We are promised that learning in order to fulfill will bring a person to true performance of mitzvos.
This protection from aveiros is called וַעֲשִיתֶם אֹתָם – and you shall perform them. As Chazal (Kidushin 39b) tell us, if a person sits and controls himself from doing an aveira, it is as though he has performed a positive mitzvah. He is rewarded as if he had actually done a mitzvah. The Gemara says that this is when a person has been tempted by an aveira and prevented himself from sinning. Even though he was saved from this sin by Heavenly intervention, he is rewarded by Hashem as though he had performed a positive mitzvah.
Torah needs 48 things to work.
The Mishna (Avos 6:6) says that Torah is acquired with 48 methods of ownership. A person who wishes to understand Torah and incorporate it into his persona, must do these 48 things and act in accordance with their lessons, and then he will become one with the Torah.
The Torah says אִם בְחֻקֹתַּׁי תֵלֵכוּ – if you wish to truly walk with Hashem’s statutes, you would need to וְאֶת מִצְוֹתַּׁי תִ שְמְרוּ וַּׁעֲשִיתֶם אֹתָם – you would have to keep these 48 things, some of which are positive actions and some of which are refraining from certain actions. Both of these are included in this possuk. ‘Guarding the commandments’ includes those of the 48 that are the refraining from negative actions, and ‘you shall do them’ includes the positive actions.
