QUESTION: Rabbi, you said that when we leave this world we’ll be taken to task for not studying the Maaseh Merkavah. How can a plain man achieve that?
ANSWER: The question is that it was mentioned here that a man will be brought to judgment and he’ll be asked, “Did you study Maaseh Merkavah, the secret knowledge, the secret wisdom?” So, the question is: How can an ordinary person be held responsible for that?
So, the question I can ask is this: How can an ordinary person repair television sets? Some of these sets are very complicated mechanisms. But when a man applies himself, every man discovers that he has big capabilities in various fields.
I know that there are people here who have skills that would make me appear like a baby compared to them. So, the question is: How do they learn it? The answer is: When you apply yourself, you learn it.
Every Jew is expected to apply himself also to the important task of mastering the principles of Torah. In accordance to his opportunities, that’s how responsible he is. If a man had opportunities and he could have studied Maaseh Merkavah, he’s held responsible for not doing that.
Now, if he was a yasom, he was an orphan, he had no teachers, he lived in wartime, he was buffeted by circumstances, then he’s not held responsible for that. But responsibility has no end because the capabilities of human beings has no end.
TAPE # 22 (April 1973)
Reprinted from the Parshas Tzav 5784 email of Toras Avigdor. Transcribed from Tape #R-34 (March 1972).
