The study of the Torah affords the Jew with the opportunity to awaken himself to the aquisition of true wisdom. If one has been involved in secular wisdom, he may, at first, and even for an extended period of time, think that the Torah is similar to these wisdoms, differing only in that it’s subject is Holy. But there is much more fundamental difference; this point of difference being the pivitol point on which one’s whole success in life is dependent.
One must understand that the Torah is coming to awaken the Jew to the innate wisdom which is his natural inheritance, so to speak. Although the Mishnah in Avos states that the Torah is not an inheritance, this is coming to teach that Torah knowledge must be acquired through labor. But the wisdom that is gained through the Torah is wisdom that is an innate parcel of the person’s very existance.
This matter is very difficult to explain. One who had merited this already understands it well, and one who had not yet meritied this, he must search and pray to merit it. For truly all is dependent upon it. The Torah is given to enlighten our lives in all matters, to makes us wise in all the ways of our lives, in all that we encounter. It is not principally a matter of mastering subjects and then applying this knowledge to situations as they occur, rather a matter of having been transformed by the Torah into a ‘wise person’ whose pereceptions and acts are Holy by virtue of the fact of having awakened his true Holy nature.
May every Jew merit to come closer to his true destiny, amen.
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pencil on paper 29.7 cm x 42 cm.