As we have pointed out from the posuk before us, this is the main mitzvah of ‘Talmud Torah’. Chazal have said this explicitly (Kiddushin 40b), ‘The study of Torah brings one to the performance of mitzvos’, and they also said (Berachos 8a), ‘From the day that the Bais HaMikdash was destroyed, HaKadosh Baruch Hu only has four amos of halacha’, and if we can learn what is very dear to Hashem Yisbarach, why should we substitute it for other learning?
The Chazon Ish wrote in his letters that his Rabbanim taught him that no matter what a person does, he should first consult the four sections of Shulchan Aruch to see that his actions do not transgress some detail in Shulchan Aruch. There is hardly a step that the person takes that is not dependent on halacha. A person puts on his clothes, he must know which side goes on first, and the same when he takes them off. The same applies to putting on shoes, etc. Everything is brought down in halacha. Therefore, before one does anything he must consider if it is according to Shulchan Aruch. But if a person does not learn halacha, it does not enter his mind that there might be a sin in his actions and throughout his day he could be transgressing many sins. In light of what was said, a roar should emerge from the heart how a person can spend his time in conversation and contemplation and say, ‘Peace to my soul’ without doing an accounting of his day, for he is destined to give an accounting of every detail? The Gemara (Berachos 5a) says that if a person sees that misfortune comes upon him, he should inspect his actions, since there is no misfortune without sin (Berachos 55a), and Heaven demands of him to correct his ways based on Shulchan Aruch.
Many times the doors of people are darkened because they are burdened with distress, and they ask and wonder why they are having such distress. First of all, we advise them to take a Kitzur Shulchan Aruch and learn it halacha after halacha, and see if they are actually keeping it as they should or not, as the Torah promises Israel (Shemos 15:26) 'אם שמוע תשמע לקול ה' אלקיך והישר בעיניו תעשה והאזנת למצותיו ושמרת כל חוקיו כל המחלה אשר שמתי במצרים לא אשים עליך כי אני ה' רופאך' – ‘If you will listen diligently to the voice of Hashem, and you will do what is just in His eyes, and you will give ear to His commandments and observe all His statutes, then any of the diseases that I placed upon Egypt, I will not place upon you, for I am Hashem your Healer.’ This is an express promise that the Torah testifies, and it proves that any pain or trouble that the person suffers is due to his not fulfilling the will of his Creator. No advice or suggestion will save him from the distress except Teshuva, and Teshuva is dependent on introspection, and introspection is dependent on learning halachos.
This is why after all the troubles we have still not merited our redemption, for lack of awareness of halacha causes one to transgress the severities in the Torah, and these sins lengthen our exile as the Gemara (Sanhedrin 98a) says that Rebbe Yehoshua ben Levi asked King Moshiach to reveal when he will come to redeem Israel? He answered ‘Today’. When he saw the day was over and he had not come, he told Eliyahu HaNavi that King Moshiach lied. Eliyahu explained that he meant, ‘Today, if you listen to His voice’.
Here we have the reason why we have not seen the redemption, since we do not keep the word of Hashem as halacha. If so, then we should learn halacha to bring the redemption sooner.
דבר ה' זו הלכה
The word of Hashem, this is halacha
וְהָיְתָה עִמּוֹ וְקָרָא בוֹ כָל יְמֵי חַיָיו לְמַעַן יִלְמַד לְיִרְאָה אֶת ה' אֱלֹקיו לִשְמֹר אֶת כָל דִבְרֵי הַתּוֹרָה הַזֹאת וְאֶת הַחֻקִים הָאֵלֶה לַעֲשׂתָם :(יז:יט)
It will be with him, and he will read from it all the days of his life, so that he will learn to fear Hashem, his G-d, to observe all the words of this Torah and these decrees, to perform the. (17:19)
It is a simple matter that as long as the person is not expert in all sections of the Shulchan Aruch, he must spend time learning the Shulchan Aruch and its commentaries. Without this knowledge in all details of the halacha, it is possible that he can stumble with severe sins. But more than this, we see in the posuk before us that even one who is expert in the entire Torah and there is no concern that he will stumble in a matter of halacha, he too must delve into the main aspects of Torah which brings him to action. The Torah does not differentiate between a king who is a talmid chacham and a king who is an am ha’aretz [unlearned]. Anyway, the king is obligated to be involved in Torah all the days of his life which brings him to act, as the Torah says, ‘and he will read it all the days of his life so that he will learn to fear Hashem, his G-d, to observe all the words of this Torah’.
There is no question that if we are speaking about a king who is a talmid chacham, how does ‘so that he will learn’ apply? The Torah means Torah that has a new teaching. We can say that even if one reviews what he has previously learned we consider this learning to teach the person his way, for by doing this he will remember the teachings that he had already forgotten. We can also say that even one who is an expert in the laws of halacha, if he reviews these halachos, he will find additional vital details that he had not paid attention to in the past, and we find that even what he reviews of his learning again and again, we consider it like Torah which brings him to act, and this is the main purpose of the learning.
Nevertheless, we see from this posuk the main mitzvah of ‘eisek haTorah’ – ‘the business of Torah’ is the Torah of halacha. As the Chofetz Chaim mentions in his introduction to his sefer ‘Mishnah Berurah’ that even though one who learns ‘Seder Kodshim’ and ‘Seder Tohoros’ keeps the mitzvah of ‘Talmud Torah’ – learning Torah, the person must do his main learning in the sections of the Torah that are relevant to life.
In light of what was said, it is fitting for every avreich and ben yeshiva to keep his words and set aside the main portion of his time to learn things that are relevant to life. The learner must know what Chazal said (Peah 1:1) that ‘Torah study is equal to all of them’ is referring only to Torah that brings one to act, as brought down as halacha in Shulchan Aruch HaRav of the Tanya, and every day we pray and ask in the bracha of ‘Ahavah Rabbah’ that Hashem should grace the person with knowledge that we merit understanding ‘to understand and elucidate, to listen, learn, and to teach’ and all this is ‘to perform and to keep’.
Behold, in our day we merit to see something that the generations before did not merit seeing, for today the benches have multiplied in the Bais HaMedrash and the young men have multiplied who steer their hearts to Torah, and they set aside their daily lives to earn ‘chayei olam’ – ‘true life’. However, when we consider we see that most of those who learn and spend their time in the ways of learning do not come to act. Hearts shudder over this matter and they have a claim against these learners, that even though they fulfill the mitzvah of Talmud Torah – learning Torah – in all aspects of learning, but they do not know how to do what they must do.
