The King’s Scroll-Room
And it was on the first day of the first month of the second year in the wilderness and the Mishkan was erected (Shemos 40:17). The greatest day in the history of the world had finally arrived. On the first day of Nissan the dwelling place for Hashem was established and the Presence of Hashem would now rest among His chosen people. The Mishkan was now going to be the place for the revelation of Hashem in this world, the fulfillment of Hashem’s promise: “And I will dwell among them” (ibid. 25:8).
And what was the first thing that Moshe did after spreading the roof over the Mishkan? He set up the kodesh kodoshim, the holiest space on the face of this earth, the room where the Presence of Hashem would dwell most intensely.
Now, if you would have asked me what I would have set up in that room where Hashem would now reside, so with my little head I would say, a throne. A big beautiful golden throne, something resplendent and ornate, placed in the middle of the kodesh kodoshim; and that would symbolize the kisei hakavod, the place where Hashem rests His Presence in this world.
“Nothing doing,” said Hakadosh Baruch Hu, “I have other plans for My room, for the kodesh kodoshim.” Hashem commanded that into this holiest part of the Mishkan, the room that symbolized His place in this world, should be placed the two stone tablets engraved by the Hand of Hashem, and afterward the Torah itself was put alongside the luchos (Devarim 31:26).
A Mountain In The Little Room
And that’s what Dovid Hamelech said in Tehillim (68:18): “Hashem has settled among the Am Yisroel.” And how did He do that? “Because Har Sinai is now in the Mishkan.” That great day of the Giving of the Torah at Har Sinai is now found in the kodesh kodoshim. The Sanctuary was the heart of the nation, and it was the Word of Hashem, the stone luchos and the Torah, that were at the heart of the Mishkan.
What we’re learning here is that preparing a home for Hashem to live among us, really meant preparing a home for the Torah to reside among us. And the Mishkan in its entirety was actually an altar of devotion to the Word of Hashem. And so instead of a throne for Hashem to rest His Presence on, the revelation of Hashem in this world came by means of His Torah. And the Am Yisroel in the midbar lived according to that revelation.
What Did They Do All Day?
I’ll explain that. Because really we have to ask ourselves: What was the Am Yisroel doing in the midbar for forty years after all? They ate what fell from the clouds; they didn’t have to go to the factory to get a paycheck. And so we have to understand that for forty years they had nothing to do except to study Torah. The entire nation actually became one big yeshivah.
And it was a yeshivah where they studied day and night; they didn’t have newspapers to read, or radio to listen to. And even if they would have been able to get their hands on something – let’s say a ben Yisroel would try to pick up a newspaper from a neighboring tribe, from Midian – you couldn’t get away with such a thing in the machneh Yisroel. You were in a kollel, and every kollel has a mashgiach. And this kollel in the midbar had more supervision that any kollel since then! Every nine men had a mashgiach who watched them, the sar asarah, and so they had to behave. And every forty nine men had a super mashgiach, the sar chamishim. Every ninety nine men had a super super mashgiach, the sar mei’ah. And every nine hundred and ninety nine had a super super super mashgiach, that was the sarei alafim. You couldn’t sneak anything past this army of mashgichim. And Moshe Rabbeinu with his watchful eye was overseeing the whole thing, the whole Yeshivas Hamidbar.
But the mashgichim didn’t have a very difficult job, because they were serious yungerleit in that yeshivah. Never, in any subsequent era, was the Torah so supreme and so studied as under the forty year rule of Moshe Rabbeinu, the Torah teacher par excellence. “You should speak in the words of Torah when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the road, and when you lie down and when you arise” (Devarim 6:7) wasn’t merely a possuk, a mitzvah, or even an aspiration to yearn for – it was their way of life! The sole occupation for the Dor Hamidbar was Torah study. The midbar was actually a forty year kollel, a Torah Academy.
The ‘Main Dish’ Of Our People
And it was that kollel that would define what the Am Yisroel would be forever. The Gemara in Sanhedrin (92a) says: that the word sarid, “leftover” or “the one who remains” refers to a talmid chochom. Now that’s a puzzle, why is a talmid chochom called a “leftover”? He’s not the leftover; he’s the main dish after all!
There are various pshatim, but the simple pshat is that originally the whole Klal Yisroel were chachomim; the entire Dor Hamidbar was a big kollel of talmidei chachomim. And therefore, anyone who studies the Torah today is a ‘leftover’ from those days in the midbar. Because it was then that the Am Yisroel in its entirety recognized the truth that the goal of every Jew is to be a talmid chochom.
And from then on, the study of Torah became the national vocation and pastime. Never did the Am Yisroel, in all its subsequent history, ever use their leisure time for anything else but Torah. There was no telling stories of adventure and war, and no playing sports. There were no theaters or stadiums and no amusement parks either. We found everything we wanted and everything we needed in the study of Torah and in the raising of families to be ohavei Torah. The word entertainment doesn’t exist in the lexicon of our people.
Why Are We Still Here?
And that’s what Rav Saadia Gaon meant when he said (Sefer Emunos V’deios 3:7) that we are a nation only as a Torah nation. It means the following: We have no right to exist. We should have long ago disappeared. Where is Edom? They disappeared! Where is Amon? They disappeared! It’s all gone! Where is Ancient Mitzrayim? All gone! Ancient Greece is all gone, everything is underground. You’re going to need a lot of shovels and you’ll have to sweat a lot before you can see all the ancient nations of the world.
So why are we still here? We’re also one of the ancient nations, so why didn’t we also disappear along with all the others? And the answer is that we are only here because of the Torah. We are a Torah-nation and that’s the cause of our existence. It’s the study of Torah that defines the Am Yisroel; it’s our life-breath, our way of life. We are a nation of Torah learners and that’s why we are forever. Hashem is forever, His Torah is forever, and we who study His Torah will be forever.
The Pageant In The Mesivta
You know that in Bavel there were great Mesivtos, great yeshivos where the chachomim gathered to study and to teach. There was a Mesivta in Sura where Rav was, and there was another Mesivta in Naharda’eh where Shmuel lived; two big Mesivtos that were the center of the Am Yisroel. And there were other Mesivtos too that functioned in Bavel.
But the Mesivta wasn’t a place where you just learned Torah and heard shiurim. It was a very interesting experience, the Mesivta. Everything was done with a procedure. They used to march into the beis medrash at the beginning of the session; the chachomim marched in first, and then the talmidim marched in behind them, and everyone took his place; each one of the chachomim had his particular place. And there were designated people who would make the announcement, “The chachomim are coming in now; they’re entering into the Mesivta.” It was mamish like a pageant; that’s how they opened up the Mesivta.
Babylonian State Of The Union
And not only in the beginning of the zman; every day was like that. It was done with a certain panoply, like in a royal tribunal, with certain procedures, formalities and announcements. Like in the Congress l’havdil or in a king’s palace; it was done with the greatest kind of ceremony. And we should ask ourselves: What was this for? Why all the fanfare?! Why couldn’t they just get busy with learning already? Isn’t that what they came for? It wasn’t the State of the Union address after all; it was a yeshivah! And they didn’t do this once a year; it was every day!
And the answer is that this pomp and the ceremony was vital for an understanding of the place of the Torah in the Am Yisroel.
In the midbar, where they all saw the Mishkan, and they all knew that hidden inside, in the room that Hashem chose to reside in, was the luchos and the Torah, so the entire nation lived with a tangible understanding that it was the study of the Torah that was the core function of our people – everybody was learning in kollel, and there was no question in anyone’s mind that limud Torah was the function of our people. But in order to keep that fire of kavod haTorah alive forever and to understand the centrality of the Torah to our nation, the nation had to see with their own eyes the glory of Torah. And so the Mesivta functioned with the prominence it deserved and the Am Yisroel learned that the aristocracy of our people were the ones who were studying the Toras Hashem in the beis medrash.
The Great Kiddush Hashem
In Bavel they also established the Yarchei Kallah together with the Mesivta. Twice a year there was a yarchei kallah, a kiddush Hashem of remarkable proportions. You know they were almost all farmers in Bavel, so when the farming season was over, two months a year, tens of thousands of people came to the Mesivta. The town was overflowing with Jews. They slept on the streets, on the roofs, and in cellars, and they were learning all the time. The entire month they were learning Torah. And the chachmei haTorah were there to test them, to see if they knew it! Everybody was learning the same thing – it was a scene to behold – they were all learning the same mesichta and the chachomim farherred them.
And it wasn’t little children we’re talking about; these were adults, men in their forties and fifties, older than that too, men with families. From where did this fire of dedication to Torah come? How could a nation of so many different personalities: workers, wise men, simple folk, intellectuals, rich and poor alike all humbly submit themselves before the chachmei haTorah?
And the answer is that it wasn’t something that began in Bavel; it was already engraved on our souls from the Dor Hamidbar. The same way the Dor Hamidbar submitted themselves before Moshe Rabbeinu, the Am Yisroel continued that practice always. And therefore there was always a tremendous outpouring of Torah learning, a tremendous demonstration that Torah is everything for the Am Yisroel. We are always a nation of Torah learners.
