Brothers and Friends
)יא,ב(וישאלו איש מאת רעהו
Each man shall request of his fellow (11:2)
The Mishna (Avos 6:5) enumerates 48 requirements necessary to learn Torah properly. One of the conditions is בדבוק חברים. Literally, this translates as “studying with friends.” The Zera Shimshon explains this prerequisite differently.
There are numerous times in the Torah that commandments are worded using the words “your brother.” For example, when commanding not to lend with interest, the passuk says (Devarim 23:20), לא תשיך לאחיך, "Do not lend with interest to your brother." Another example is the commandment to return a lost object. The passuk says (Devarim 22:3), לכל אבידת אחיך, which teaches that one must return “his brother's” lost object. There are many more such examples. The Gemara (Baba Kama 113b) learns that these laws only apply to Jewish people since the Torah uses the term “your brother.”
In other instances, the Torah uses the word “friend.” For example, when the Torah commands us not to testify falsely, the passuk says (Devarim 5:17) ולא תענה בריעך. The Torah words the commandment that one should not testify falsely against one's “friend.” The Torah does not use the word “brother.”
Rabbeinu Bachya points this out and says that this commandment includes non-Jews. He learns from the fact that the Torah referred to the Egyptians as רעהו, friends, as seen from the wording Hashem used when He commanded the Jewish people to request items from their Egyptian neighbors. From this, Rabbeinu Bachya learns that the commandment about testifying falsely includes testifying falsely against non-Jews.
Thus, understanding the Torah’s different terminologies and who they refer to, either including or excluding certain people, makes many differences in properly understanding the halachos one learns. With this, the Zera Shimshon offers an original explanation for the requirement of בדבוק חברים.
He explains that the Mishna is saying that in order to learn Torah correctly, among the many other requirements, one must know how to analyze it with others. This means that one must know that the Torah has numerous ways of referring to people (brother, friend, etc.), and these terminologies create differences in halacha. Without being aware of this, one can learn Torah but still transgress halacha. This is why it is necessary to understand how the Torah refers to people and to whom each terminology refers.
