Parshas Nitzavim 5785 & Rosh Hashana 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- Sep 18
- 2 min read
לא בשמים הוא לאמר מי יעלה לנו השמימה ויקחה לנו וישמענו אתה ונעשנה ... (ל-יב)
Rashi interprets the posukim here as referring to Limud HaTorah, and infers that when it says that the Torah is not in the heavens, it is implicit that if it would have been there, we would indeed have been obligated to go there and get it!
That is how great our obligation to learn Torah is. This is illustrated by the following story: The great talmid of the Vilna Gaon zt”l, R’ Zelme’le Volozhiner zt”l, was renowned as a tremendous ilui and gadol b’Torah. It happened late one night that Rav Zelmele was learning in the beis medrash in Shnipishok, just outside the city of Vilna, and desired to look up a certain sefer. However, the sefer was located inside Vilna proper, in the city’s library, quite some distance away. Undeterred, Rav Zelme’le left the beis medrash, and, in the dead of the frigid night, trekked into the city to retrieve the sefer.
He arrived at the library, his knees knocking together from the cold, found the sefer he was looking for, and began to study its contents. When he finished learning, some wealthy baalei batim who were present at the time approached him, and asked in wonder why he undertook to walk so far in the middle of the night, just to look up a sefer!
Surprised, Rav Zelme’le answered, “Why, it’s an open posuk in the Torah! "לא בשמים היא, ולא מעבר לים היא" - from which Chazal derive that if, however, the Torah would have been in the heavens or across the sea, one would have been required to travel there to get it - and the walk from the Shnipishok to Vilna is a lot closer than that!”
Now, R’ Eizik Chaver zt”l, writes that one of the reasons we blow the shofar on Rosh Hashana is to be mazkir the zechus of the Torah that was given to us בקול שופר. We truly do not have to go to the heavens or across the sea to learn Torah; it is readily accessible to all who just put a modicum of time and effort into it. Let us make at least some kabbalah in this area to strengthen ourselves in Limud HaTorah, and thus be zoche to a כתיבה וחתימה טובה!