Reish Lakish (Berachos 63b) learns from this pasuk that words of Torah are only retained by one who “kills” himself over it, meaning, one who is ready to devote all his efforts to Torah.
The great R’ David Pardo, author of Shoshanim L’David, Michtam L’David, Mizmor L’David, and other works, had a childhood friend with whom he was very close. During their youth, the two were inseparable, and they managed to learn the entire Shas together several times.
He Gave Up and the Two Friends Drifted Apart
When the two grew older, they continued to maintain their bond of friendship. But when they were around 25 years old, R’ David’s friend went into business and eventually became very wealthy. R’ David continued to grow in Torah, and he tried to convince his friend to carry on their joint learning session. But when he saw that his friend was not interested, he gave up, and the two drifted apart.
The friend’s love for Torah was not snuffed out completely, however, and he asked a prominent sefarim merchant to bring him a copy of every new sefer printed anywhere in the world. The price of sefarim in those days was very high, and most people could not afford to purchase many sefarim. But this wealthy man was insistent on having a fully stocked library, and he did not want even a single sefer to be missing from this library.
Every week, the sefarim merchant would bring this man the latest sefarim that had been published. One day, he brought him a large package of new sefarim, and the man opened them one by one, deeply gratified to see that Torah was flourishing in many different areas of the Diaspora.
Suddenly, an anguished howl burst from his throat. The merchant, who was on his way out of the house, hurried back to see what was wrong with his customer, who was known as a calm, even-tempered person. He was greeted by a strange sight:
The wealthy man was sitting with the sefer Shoshanim L’David in his hand and crying, almost tearing his hair out in anguish.
“What happened?” asked the merchant with concern.
The wealthy man pointed to the newly printed sefer. “Do you know who the author of this sefer is?” he asked. “It is my old chavrusa! We grew up together and learned together for so many years, and look where he is, and look where I am ... ”
When the wealthy man saw the great heights that R’ David had achieved in Torah study, he decided on the spot to give over all of his business affairs to trustworthy people, and he returned to the beis midrash and began to once again devote all of his time to Torah study, until he, too, became an accomplished scholar.
Reprinted from the Parshas Chukas 5784 email of At the ArtScroll Shabos Table. Excerpted from the ArtScroll book “Aleinu L’Shabei’ach” written by Rabbi Moshe Zoren based on the Torah teachings of Rabbi Yitzchok Zilberstein.
