Wings in Learning

Despite all the troubles around us, there are still many reasons to be happy and optimistic. Emuna is spreading around the globe. The King of Ethiopia eats matza made from corn. Something else that’s new in the world is that a group of Arab Muslims on WhatsApp learn The Garden of Emuna. One said to the other, “Aren’t you afraid that they’ll kill you for learning a book that a Jew wrote?”

The other Muslim answered, “If you had emuna, you wouldn’t be afraid.”

With all the problems in the world, the world is still beautiful. People are learning emuna.

People ask me how to learn Torah – let’s refer to Rebbe Nachman’s Discourses, Discourse 76. Rabbenu Nachman learned the Code of Jewish Law in depth three times. This doesn’t mean that he only learned it three times, but that he knew the entire Code of Jewish Law three ways, the simple meaning with the sources in Torah, the more in-depth meaning with all the sources in Gemara, and the third time with all the meaning according to the inner or esoteric dimension. He learned fast, as if he had wings. That way he covered tremendous ground in Torah. He also learned day and night; no wonder he did so much by the time he left this physical world at the tender age of 38.

Rabbi Yitzchak Kadouri obs”m would spend his entire days learning Gemara. He only learned Kabbala late at night.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Binder obs”m said that the Rebbe lived a long life; how could that be? The Rebbe was 38 when he left this world. The answer is that his every breath was Torah.

The Rebbe learned everything quickly – the Shulchan Aruch was his hub. In fact, the Rebbe told us to learn Shulchan Aruch every day, for if one doesn’t, he lacks a tikkun for that day.

One’s bakiut (breadth) learning should be fast, so that he gains an overview of Torah with the ability to learn much and review over and over. It’s senseless how people learn three lines of Gemara all day long. The way to learn the Torah is with agility, covering a lot of ground in order to be able to learn all of Gemara and Shulchan Aruch in breadth so that he can learn as much as possible, hopefully the whole Torah.

People mistakenly think that Rebbe Nachman’s intent was to read the Gemara, with or without understanding. That’s not right; Rabbenu wanted us to understand our learning, but he didn’t want us to get bogged down if we don’t understand a word. Continue learning and move forward! As you move forward, Hashem will help you understand and the Gemara will become clear. Sure, in-depth learning is vital, but it should be limited to about an hour a day. It’s our job to learn as much of Torah as we can and to know how to live our lives. That’s why Rabbenu wanted us to learn all of Shulchan Aruch with the main commentaries, all of Gemara, all of Tanach, as well as Zohar and Midrashim.

When we focus our brain on the Torah, we understand what we’re reading. Also, when a person is committed to Torah, even if he doesn’t understand now, he’ll understand later.

Remember, Rabbenu didn’t have the tools we have today. There’s no excuse for not knowing Gemara today; there are CD shiurim on the entire Gemara, Artscroll, Shotenstein – whatever you want.

The brain is a muscle. Rabbenu wanted it to be active and straining all day long so that it would be strong, just like an athlete who spends all day long exerting his muscles in the gym. That’s the way to build a strong body; having one’s head in Torah all day long builds a strong brain. So, if you don’t understand your learning the first time, you’ll understand the second or the third time, but you’ll eventually understand.

Rabbenu warns us that quite a few people left Torah altogether because of their excess nitpicking, which brought them to questions that they had no answers for. They got discouraged and threw in the towel completely.

We learn in Rabbenu’s Discourse 76 not to lose heart, not to be discouraged and not to get mixed up – no matter what, we move forward with our learning and learn as much as we can. That’s not enough – we must invest a daily hour to personal prayer, make teshuva, and use 30 minutes a day to rectify the particular character trait that we’re currently working on. Don’t forget to say Tehillim every day and to pray like one should.

With all this in mind, who has time for anything else?

There was a tzaddik named Tzvi Arie Rosenfeld who spread the light of Breslev in America. He was a gaon, a giant in Torah, who showed what real Breslever Chassidim learn like – in fact, he was the learning partner of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He was a teacher in public school and he used to take the Jewish students and bring them close to Hashem, so much so that some of the secular parents wanted to kill him. Many differed with Rav Tzvi Arie’s ways of doing things, but you should know one thing: anyone who opposes the Breslever leaders of this generation would have opposed Rebbe Nachman in his generation.