We have started the weeks of Shovavim, six weeks when there is a special spiritual door that can be opened if you open it, when we can achieve rectification for sins that we have done in the past, sins that have been holding up back. In particular, sins that have to do with men, but in general, other sins as well, especially in the area of modesty and the modesty of our relationships.
In many circles it has become an accepted practice to open this spiritual door with increased Torah learning. In particular, to learn without taking a break every 10 minutes to talk about covid or politics. To try to go at least a half hour, or an hour, or two hours, or 5 hours without breaking. (Going to the bathroom and getting something to eat or drink doesn’t constitute a break).
When I was saying Tehillim recently, a verse (119, 119) stood out suddenly that I found interesting:
סִגִים הִשְׁבַּתָּ כָל רִשְׁעֵי אָרֶץ לָכֵן אָהַבְתִּי עֵדֹתֶיךָ.
“You do away with the wicked as if they were dross (dregs, waste); therefore do I love Your (Torah) Statutes.”
It’s a bit strange. You do away with the wicked, therefore I love your Torah Statutes!?! What does one thing have to do with the other?
Thinking about it, I wanted to understand as follows: Rashi says on the verse in Parshat Yitro:
.וְעַתָּה אִם שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמְעוּ בְּקֹלִי וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם אֶת בְּרִיתִי וִהְיִיתֶם לִי סְגֻלָּה מִכָּל הָעַמִּים כִּי לִי כָּל הָאָרֶץ
as follows:
(ועתה. אִם עַתָּה תְקַבְּלוּ עֲלֵיכֶם, יֶעֱרַב לָכֶם מִכָּאן וָאֵילָךְ, שֶׁכָּל הַתְחָלוֹת קָשׁוֹת (מכילתא
AND NOW — if you will now take upon yourselves the observance of My commandments, it will be pleasant (easy) to you from now and henceforth, for every beginning is difficult (Mekhilta d’Rabbi Yishmael 19:5:1).
Not everyone finds learning Torah, especially at the beginning, like honey. Many understand this because there are forces of evil in the world, pollution, bad spiritual forces. Simply understood, this is because of the many sins that we have done, as the Mishna says in Pirkei Avot, that when a person does a bad deed, that he creates a not-good spiritual force, that Chazal say is there to wreck havoc on a person, to punish him. The sin itself punishes him, like it says in a different place.
That’s what the verse means, that now that You, G-d, destroyed all of these evil forces, now I can love learning Torah.
I wanted to see if my explanation is born out by the Reshonim, the medieval commentators, so I looked on the page of Tanach. And I found a different, but related, explanation by the Radak which goes well with what we said above regarding Shovavim:
סיגים. כמה פעמים ראיתי עשית נקמה ברשעים והם הסיגים כמו שאמרת ואצרוף כבור סיגיך, והם אותם שזכר כי שקר תרמיתם שהם מרמים העולם והם רעים לעולם יותר מן הרשעים המגולים כי מאותם ישמור האדם את עצמו ומאלה אין אדם נשמר, ואתה תביאם לידי גלוי ותשביתם מן העולם:
לכן אהבתי עדותיך. כי הם מנקים את האדם מכל סיג והם מורים שיהיה האדם שלם תוכו כברו לפיכך אהבתי אותם ודבקתי בהם:
“DREGS: Several times I have seen the taking of vengeance upon the wicked, and these wicked people are the dregs, like it says in the beginning of Yeshaya, (the Haftara that we read on Shabbat Chazon) “…” And these are the ones that the verse mentions… (in another place), who deceive the world, and they are bad for the world much more then the revealed wicked people, because from the latter one can protect himself, but from these one cannot protect himself. And You (G-d) brought them out to revelation and destroyed them from the world.
Therefore I love your Statutes: Because they (the words of Torah) cleanse a person from all of the dregs, and they teach him to be complete, internally like his is externally, therefore I love them and I cling to them.”
So the Radak learns from this verse that Torah learning (lishma – for the right reason, not to be a bigshot, rather because G-d wants us to learn, and to cling to Him), cleans a person from his impurities and makes him complete.
Leave A Response