If any man takes a wife, and goes to her, and hates her:
The Ohr Hachaim explains that this possuk is hinting to us about people who have turned away from the Torah. These people complain that their day is too short, they do not have time for Torah because they are busy working for a living.
The Torah is compared to a betrothed woman, and this person ‘took a wife’. He then ‘goes to her’, he lives with her as a husband and wife. The light of Torah shone on him on Har Sinai when they accepted the Luchos. However, he ‘hated her’, he did not accept her properly and he does not appreciate her value. When a person comes to give him mussar and rebuke him for abandoning the wife of his youth, his answer is, “Does the Torah support and sustain? I need food to eat and money to support myself, and I cannot spend time learning Torah. Even when he learns, he does not receive any beracha from it. On the contrary, he sees people that have kept far away from Torah for all of their lives, and they are quite successful.”
This person is considered one who is וְשָׂם לָׂהּ עֲלִילֹות דְבָׂרִ ים וְהוֹצִא עָׂלֶיהָׂ שֵׁם רָׂע וְאָׂמַר אֶת הָׂאִשָׂה הַזֹּאת לָׂקַחְתִי וָׂאֶקְרַב אֵׁלֶיהָׂ וְלֹּא מָׂצָׂאתִי לָׂהּ בְתוּלִים - accuses her of shameful things, and brings up an evil name on her, and says, "I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn't find in her the tokens of virginity". He spreads a bad name about the Torah, claiming that Torah was purposeless. He does not deny the fact that he married this woman, he agrees that he accepted the Torah, but the Torah is too weak to provide him with that which he wants. The ‘token of virginity’ is the strength that a person requires to live.
The Torah tells us that the Torah’s father, which is Hashem, and Knesses Yisroel, will demand her dignity in front of the great Beis Din. The honor of the Torah was degraded, and it must be upheld.
then the father of the young lady and her mother shall take and bring forth the tokens of the young lady's virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. They will show the strength, power and ability of the Torah to the Beis Din. The Zohar writes that Hashem is destined to demand a reckoning for the Torah’s degradation throughout history.
The claims of those who are standing up for the honor of the Torah are set down in the Torah. The Father of the Torah (Hashem) will announce that He gave His daughter to this man, and the son in law was supposed to treat the Torah like a treasured wife; he was not supposed to place her in the corner of the room and ignore her. He may not diminish her food, clothing, and cohabitation. The Zohar writes that the Torah requires all three of these.
But the son-in-law hated this new wife. He kept far from her because he did not find her to be as strong as he wanted. The Torah did not provide that which he expected. However, this is a false accusation, the Torah is more powerful than it looks, and a person would be remiss when accusing it of weakness. The father will display the strength of Torah with clarity וּפָרְ שׂוּ הַשִּׂמְלָה לִּׂפְנֵי זִּׂקְנֵי הָעִּׂיר – He shall spread out the clothing in front of the elders of the city. He should show them with absolute clarity how wrong the husband is, and how great the Torah is, and how it provides for those that are attached to it. The entire universe was created for the Torah, and only exists in the merit of the Torah. All good that is hidden in this world, the treasures of life are hidden between its words.
The person’s punishment in Beis Din is that they have to make him suffer. The Gemara tells us ‘if a person perceives suffering befalling him, he should research his own actions. If he cannot find any aveira on which to blame his suffering, he should blame it on his lack of learning Torah’. The question is obvious – why does the Torah first tell us to research our aveiros, and only afterward blame the lack of learning Torah? Why not turn straight to the, unfortunately common, aveira of not learning Torah?
The answer to this is that a person’s obligation to learn Torah is not fixed. All learning is a Mitzvah, but a person needs to find every spare minute to learn. If a person has researched his actions and no obvious aveira can be found, he must realize that there is one aveira that is never obvious, and that is any lack in learning Torah. As much as a person learns, he can always do better. He can find time to learn, and he can learn with greater clarity, devotion, and focus. Even if he thinks he has learned enough, there is always the chance that there is something missing.
The Beis Din then punishes him with 100 silver coins. This alludes to the 100 daily Berachos that a person must say. The possuk says ועתה ישראל מה ה' אלוקיך שואל מעמך וגו' – and now Yisroel what is Hashem asking of you? Chazal explain that the word מה is an allusion to the word מאה – 100. A person must say 100 berachos each day, and this is referring specifically to a Ba’al Teshuva. As the possuk says ועתה ישראל, and Chazal learn that the word ועתה is referring to Teshuva. A Baal Teshuva is specifically enjoined to be careful to say 100 Berachos each day.
He must give this to the ‘Father of the girl’, which is referring to Hashem. He spread false information about the Torah, and he degraded its honor. This is the honor of the Shechina and of Klal Yisroel. He must say these Berachos to Hashem, and devote them wholly to His honor.
He then has to keep the Torah for a wife. The Ohr Hachaim explains that this is referring to a Halacha in Hilchos Talmud Torah. Every person must spend a set time each day and night learning Torah. But this person who spoke badly about the Torah has to be careful to treat the Torah as his wife, the one with whom he spends his days and nights. He can never abandon it. Chazal write that a Baal Teshuva needs to double his learning program – if he is used to learning one daf, he should get used to learning two daf each day. This refers to a person who is doing Teshuva on other aveiros. Someone whose aveira is denigrating the Torah needs to change his lifestyle and spend his life learning and attached to Torah.
However, if his claims are truly valid, and his learning was totally disconnected from the true Torah and will not provide him with anything good. This is like the Torah of Tzadok and Baysus, who used their learning to fight against the Oral Torah and create new groups in Klal Yisroel.
This Torah must be ‘stoned to death’ and destroyed completely. Even though the Torah was said by Hashem, it has no holiness to it, and is similar to a Sefer Torah written by a priest or a monk, which has no holiness and is to be burned. This is completely evil, and must be eradicated.
