The Power of Torah and Emuna

“And the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, speak to the children of Israel and you shall say to them: When you come to the land that I am giving you, the land shall rest a Sabbath to the Lord. (Vayikra 25:1-2)”   
 

The Power of Torah Study  

My father, the Rebbe, zt”l, once told me a powerful story that demonstrated the incredible power of Torah study: 
 

When he was young, my father became gravely ill just before Simchat Torah. The doctor’s diagnosis was that he would not recover and that he didn’t have very long left in this world. Every time his mother, who rarely if ever cried, would come into his room and see him, she would cry uncontrollably. 
 

When the Simchat Torah came, the young boy was too ill to leave his bed and go to shul. During the hakafot (dancing in a circle), his father, the holy Rebbe, the Eit Ratzon, delivered a powerful drasha and at the end, he concluded with, “I give over the merit of these words of Torah to my son that he should have a speedy recovery.” 
 

Immediately after he said those words, the son, my father, began the journey to a complete recovery. From this story we can clearly see the power of learning Torah.  

The Yetzer Harah Challenges 

The virtues of Torah study are described in the pasuk in Mishlei which says, “Length of days is in its right hand; in its left hand are riches and honor.” Torah study can provide someone with longevity, riches, and honor. 
 

The power of Torah is so strong, that the Yetzer Harah desperately tries to prevent a Jew from studying Torah, alone or in a group setting such as a shiur (lecture). The Yetzer Harah will try to convince you that you don’t have the time, or that the time attending a Torah class will take you away from focusing on work and that will impact your success and livelihood. 
 

To the contrary, by committing yourself to Torah study you open the gates to the brachot (blessings) of livelihood to earn a living with ease and peace of mind. 
 

This has been true for over 3,000 thousand years, from generation to generation, from Avraham Avinu until today. Throughout these generations Jews have always been willing to make sacrifices to establish time for daily Torah study in their lives. 

Emunah When Leaving Egypt 

This level of commitment to Torah study, the willingness to sacrifice in order to learn, requires emunah, faith. Therefore, it is possible to say that before the Jews were able to accept the Torah in the desert, they needed to strengthen their emunah as well. 
 

When Bnei Yisroel left Egypt and journeyed into the desert, it was a tremendous act of emunah. Bnei Yisroel had large families to worry about. Even though they were slaves in Egypt, they at least had the necessities covered: food, water, and shelter. They left all of that “safety” behind and ventured into a vast desert filled with snakes, scorpions, sand storms, and winds. They were heading to a land, Canaan, that was still occupied by 31 powerful kings. This required mesirut nefesh, self-sacrifice, a willingness to forgo everything for the sake of Hashem. They found the fortitude and inner strength to make this journey, to leave the safety of what they had known into the dangerous unknown, because on the day they left Egypt, Hashem elevated them to the 50th level of kedusha, holiness. They saw Hashem’s greatness with clarity and they understood that when someone is fulfilling the mitzvot, the Will of Hashem, they will not suffer any losses. 
 

However, that was a one-time gift. Immediately upon departing Egypt, they were brought back to their previous state. They now had to work on acquiring that level of emunah on their own, through their hard work and avodah. When they reached the Yam Suf on the 7th Day of Pesach, they were still lacking in that faith. Therefore, when faced with the sea before them and the Egyptian army chasing after them, they began trying to find a solution, a way out of this seeming dire predicament. 
 

The Yerushalmi in Ta’anis (2:5) describes that the Jews fell into four basic groups- each group with its own opinion on what to do. It was only after Moshe Rabbeinu strengthened their emunah with the encouragement that Hashem would save them, that they merited to see their salvation come from an event that none of them could even imagine let alone articulate! The laws of nature were suspended, the sea split, and they were saved. Not only were they saved by that miracle, the Egyptian army was annihilated. In addition, Bnei Yisroel was enriched by the treasures they found on the shores of the sea. What they had thought was a disaster – seeing the Egyptian army hunting them down and a tragedy waiting to happen – ended up proving to be for their ultimate good. 
 

Therefore Chazal (Pesachim 118a) teaches us that earning a livelihood is as difficult as splitting the sea. People produce all kinds of strategies and plans on how they will make their livelihood and how they will be financially successful. A person thinks that if he closes this one deal, makes this one sale, or closes a particular client, they will be set; their financial problems will evaporate and they will be able to live a worry-free lifestyle, free from the stress of money. And, when it does not work out, they are forced to remember that every salvation comes from Hashem and Hashem only. They work on their emunah. They strengthen their faith. When they come to a level of pure emunah, then Hashem sends them salvation. And his livelihood – his success – might come from somewhere else, even an unlikely place. Then he realizes that his first failure, that moment that felt like all was lost, was for his benefit and was the catalyst for the process that led up to this moment. That is the same lesson of the splitting the sea. 
 

This level of faith is what Jews need to be working on from Pesach until Shavuot, during these days of Sefirat HaOmer. Building on their faith, strengthening that emunah until they reach Shavuot when Hashem revealed Himself on Har Sinai, Mt. Sinai.  

Shmittah and Har Sinai

This can be the reason our parsha ties the mitzvah of Shmittah to Har Sinai. 
 

The entire mitzvah of Shmittah is this very concept of emunah. As the parsha says later: And if you should say, “What will we eat in the seventh year? We will not sow, and we will not gather in our produce! [Know then, that] I will command My blessing for you in the sixth year, and it will yield produce for three years. (25:20-21) 
 

This entire pasuk is referring to emunah, something which is beyond the framework of the laws of nature. The Jews would refrain from working in the seventh year and depend on Hashem’s promise that they will have enough to survive. This is completely contrary to the way the world thinks: if you do not work, you do not eat. A Jew needs to have the emunah that if Hashem promises that everything will be fine, it will be. 
 

This is the reason that Shmittah is mentioned in relation to Har Sinai. Both require the Jews to work on their emunah. And, just like Shmittah, when a Jew works on the emunah and commits himself to studying Torah, he will never lose out on anything, because Hashem controls and guides everything.  

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The Kalever Rebbe is the seventh Rebbe of the Kaalov Chasidic dynasty, begun by his ancestor who was born to his previously childless parents after receiving a blessing from the Baal Shem Tov zy”a, and later learned under the Maggid of Mezeritch zt”l. The Rebbe has been involved in outreach for more than 30 years, and writes weekly emails on understanding current issues through the Torah. You can sign up at www.kaalov.org.