The Mishnah (Avos 6:6) teaches: Torah is great, for it gives life to those who do it in this world and the next, as it says (Mishlei 4:22), "It is life for those who find it and heals all their flesh."
The Zera Shimshon asks: Why does the Mishnah choose the words ‘those who do it' when referring to Torah as opposed to ‘those who learn it’?
The Zera Shimshon explains by first asking about a contradiction between the following two passages in the Gemara. The Gemara in Brachos 5a says that whoever studies Torah, suffering separates itself from him. Immediately after that, the Gemara says that there are three gifts that Hashem gave the Jewish people, and all of them must be acquired with suffering. One of those enumerated is Torah. The question is obvious. Must Torah be acquired with suffering, or is it in fact the opposite, that one who studies Torah is free from suffering?
The Zera Shimshon answers with the following Midrash.
The Midrash (Devarim Rabbah 8:4) teaches on the passuk (Mishlei 4:22), "It is life for those who find it and heals all their flesh," that there are two opinions about how to understand it. The first opinion holds that it means the Torah gives life to one who makes others find it, meaning he teaches others Torah. The second opinion holds that the Torah gives life to one who finds new ways in understanding it. Once a person has reached either one of these two levels, the Torah is considered his.
With this, the Zera Shimshon answers the contradiction. When the Gemara says that Torah is acquired with suffering, this refers to a person who has not yet reached the level where he is teaching others or creating new insights in his Torah study. For this, one must go through suffering in order to acquire the Torah. This is seen and mirrored by the way the Jewish people themselves acquired the Torah. They first suffered in Egypt before they actually merited the Torah, before it became theirs.
However, once a person has truly acquired the Torah, which, based on the Midrash, means that he either teaches it to others or creates new explanations and understandings in the Torah that he studies, then the Torah is considered his. In such a case, his studying and teaching of the Torah lifts him above suffering.
This is why the Mishnah uses the terminology that Torah gives life to ‘those who do it,' as opposed to ‘those who learn it.’ This is because doing it refers to individuals who teach it to others, for they are, in fact, creating the people they are teaching the Torah to. As well, those who create new ideas in the Torah they study are also doing, as opposed to learning.
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