In Parashas Yisro, we learn about the giving of the Torah, which is one of the six constant mitzvos we have every day: “Remember the day in which you stood at Horeb.”
The Torah was given in front of all the people, and we have a power to remember it, to continue the past into the present and future. It was not just something that happened in the past, but something which has bearings on the present, of “It shall be to your eyes like new, each day, as if you have received it from Har Sinai.” There are other such expressions in Chazal which depict our power to remember the giving of the Torah, and this shows us that it is not just a remembrance of history, but a remembrance which awakens something in the present, in resemblance of the past. Rashi says that when the people stood at Har Sinai, they requested of Moshe, רצונינו לראות את מלכינו “It is our will to see our King.” In other words, the inner core of the giving of the Torah was this desire of desiring to see Hashem. This was only possible at Har Sinai, but after that, we can no longer have this revelation of “It is our will to see our King.”
However, our Sages teach explicitly that there is some continuation of this revelation. The Chovos HaLevovos says that one has an obligation to recognize the Creator in various ways, and one these ways is יראהו בעין שכלו, “to see Him through the eyes of the intellect (einei haseichel).” Every generation has a mitzvah to remember the event of standing at Sinai - and to continue this revelation of “It is our desire to see our King”. We cannot see Hashem of course, because “No man can see me and live”, but in the depths of our seichel (higher intellect) we can uncover our einei haseichel, which can “see” Hashem (so to speak).
When a person exerts himself in Torah, he can reach the higher part of the seichel, which is a spark of the neshamah, contained inside the seichel [as explained in sefer Nefesh HaChaim, the part of the neshamah resides in the mind]. A person forms a connection to Torah through two different ways – through the mind, and through the heart. The external part of our connection to Torah, which is the necessary first step, is to exert our minds in the Torah. The internal part of our connection to Torah is to awaken our heart’s love for the Hashem’s Torah.
One’s mind becomes attached to Torah when one trains his thoughts to think and concentrate about a certain Torah thought. As a person perseveres with this, the mind slowly becomes attached to the words of Torah he is learning. Even if someone was not born with particularly gifted mental abilities, after training himself to exert his thoughts in Torah, he gains the ability called “seichel hamishtokek” (in the words of the Ramchal). His mind becomes connected to Torah, in its yearning and longing for more and more of the Torah’s wisdom.
The heart becomes attached to Torah in a different way than the mind does: Through tefillah, and through ahavas haTorah, which awakens the heart’s yearning for Hashem and for His Torah. This enables the neshamah to shine in our minds, and that is how we can “see” our King, through the einei haseichel.
The True Meaning of a Torah Scholar
This is the true meaning of a Torah scholar, whose thoughts become Torah thoughts. His mind is always thinking about Torah, his mind becomes more purified and subtle and refined as he continues like this, and his own soul becomes purified along with this. The mind becomes refined and it harmonizes with the words of Torah he learns, when he traverses all the steps that we explained until now [which included physical exertion in learning, verbal exertion in learning, focused concentration on a Torah thought, passion for learning, and analyzing all the possible angles of understanding in a Torah thought].
Weekly Shmuess - 019 Yisro | Self-Purification Through Torah Study | Shovavim
