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Birchat HaTorah


 

One of the first things we do when we wake up – even in the middle of the night  –  if we are going to learn – is to recite the Blessing that G-d sanctified us with His Mitzvot and gave us the Mitzvah to immerse ourselves in learning Divrei Torah.

We do not want to, chas v’Shalom, say a Bracha l’batalah, a wasted Bracha, and so after making the blessings we immediately learn a Mishnah and then a portion from the Gemara Shabbat 127a:  Rabbi Yehudah bar Shila said in the name of Rabbi Asi said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan:

אֵלּוּ דְבָרִים שֶׁאָדָם אוכֵל פֵּרותֵיהֶם בָּעולָם הַזֶּה וְהַקֶּרֶן קַיֶּמֶת לו לָעולָם הַבָּא. וְאֵלּוּ הֵן. כִּבּוּד אָב וָאֵם. וּגְמִילוּת חֲסָדִים. וְהַשְׁכָּמַת בֵּית הַמִּדְרָשׁ. שַׁחֲרִית וְעַרְבִית. וְהַכְנָסַת אורְחִים. וּבִקּוּר חולִים. וְהַכְנָסַת כַּלָּה. וּלְוָיַת הַמֵּת. וְעִיּוּן תפילה. וַהֲבָאַת שָׁלום בֵּין אָדָם לַחֲבֵרו וּבֵין אִישׁ לְאִשְׁתּו. וְתַלְמוּד תּורָה כְּנֶגֶד כֻּלָּם:

These are the things that a person eats their fruit in This World and the majority of the reward is kept for them in the World to Come.  And they are: honoring parents; doing deeds of lovingkindness; arriving the house of study early--morning and evening; providing hospitality; visiting the sick; helping the needy bride; attending to the dead; probing the meaning of prayer; making peace between one person and another, and between husband and wife. And the study of Torah is equal to them all.

The great Kabbalist the Arizal and the Eidut HaMizrach prayer books add in two words to the text of the Gemara and the Blessing:

אֵלּוּ דְבָרִים שֶׁאָדָם עוֹשֶׂה אוֹתָם וְאוֹכֵל פֵּרוֹתֵיהֶם בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה...

Those words are: Oseh Otam, “Those who do them” and eat their fruit in This World…

 

In all cases, the words of the Gemara and in both forms of the Blessings over the Torah, the word “fruit” is used.  Let’s look deeper.

 

The Zohar HaKodesh opens Parashat B’Ha’alotecha with the following:

Rabbi Yehudah opened a new gate from Heaven and taught, “Happy is the portion of Israel that the Holy One Blessed be He desired Israel and gave them a Torah of Truth, a Tree of Life through which a person inherits Life in This World, Olam HaZeh and in The World to Come, Olam Haba.  For all those who immerse themselves in the study of Torah and grab hold of the Torah have Life.  And all those who abandon the words of Torah and separate from the Torah it is as if they separate from Life.

The great Kabbalist Rabbi Moshe Cordevero in his commentary expands:

 

A Tree of Life means: A tree whose fruits are Life!

 

Now we see that the words of our sages and prayers are not by chance whatsoever!

 

“These are the things that a person eats their fruit in This World and the majority of the reward is kept for them in the World to Come.”

 

When we say Birchat HaTorah every single day we reinforce the lesson: when we learn Torah and do Mitzvot we are literally eating from the tree of Life!

 

~  El-Ad Eliovson

 


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