Parshas Bechukosai: Toiling in Torah & Loving the Hustle & Grind

0:00 It is the most straightforward, simple, yet anxiety-provoking ultimatum. A simple choice Choose to follow my statutes and observe my commandments and perform them and you will be rewarded with the greatest good that you can imagine with peace, with harmony, with joy. And choose the opposite. Choose to repudiate your responsibilities, to stubbornly remain lazy and come up short about my commandments and my mitzvos and suffer the consequences.

0:46 This is the beginning of parashat b'chukosai, the ultimate ultimatum you choose. The bal kore, the one reading from the Torah on Shabbos, actually lowers his voice when reading the Tochecha, as it is called the admonitions, the rebukes, the curses that will, god forbid, befall the Jewish people if they do not choose wisely and they come up short and despise their obligations. The Tochecha is read in a hushed tone and the most simple understanding of that is it's actually hard to stomach how gruesome and detailed the Pesukim are, how horrid the tragedies that will befall the Jewish people if they do not follow their obligations.

1:49 So it's read in a hushed tone, but it is our obligation to be crystal clear about what is asked of us, and it's also exciting to know what is waiting just right around the corner if we should go in Hashem's ways and to begin the Parsha, the one verse that encompasses all of the greater good of our reward. It is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight words. Do this and you get everything. It reads as follows If you will follow my statutes, the S mitzvosai tishmaru, and observe my commandments, the asisemosam, and you will perform them, that's it Then I will provide you rains and I will give you a good crop.

2:52 You got so much wine and meat. It will be incredible. Life is perfect. What's left for us to discover is what does imbechukosai teyleichu mean? Practically? What do we do? How do we get to the good stuff? Well, let us glance down at Rashi's commentary to figure out what we need to do in life. If imbechukosai teyleichu says Rashi, we must get this crystal clear. Yachozek k'yema mitzvos Rashi, we must get this crystal clear Yahozah kiem ha-mitzvos. Rashi says I thought it could be that these words of b'chukos ha-telechu are referring to doing mitzvos B'keshu omer v's mitzvos ha-tishmaru, but that's what follows next in the Pasek that you should do and protect my mitzvos Hare kiem ha-mitzvos.

3:42 It's already been stated so clearly. The first three words of our parasha must be coming to obligate us and tell us to do something else. Rashi solidifies the question. What are the words coming to tell us? What do we need to do? What is the secret sauce? What will lead us to Kansas, to the ultimate good in life? The three words that were heard around the world that thou shall be, that thou shall be, oma'al BaTorah, amelos BaTorah.

4:26 It's that simple. Now, what does Amelos BaTorah mean? And the most basic translation is you should be toiling in Torah, struggling, working, striding, all for the sake of Torah. Do that and things will work. The question is why? Why is Torah study the only way to the goodies? Furthermore, where did Rashi exactly see that Bechukosai Telechu means studying Torah? And we know about Torah's importance.

5:09 We know that we have to study for the sake of knowing the information of how to do the mitzvos, for if you do not study, you will not know how to act in accordance with the Torah. But that's not what Rashi's talking about here. Rashi seems to care very little and the Almighty seems to not make it contingent upon learning in order to do. It seems like just the study in it of itself, amelos batora is already good enough, satisfactory, to bring you all the blessings that are written here and in the books of the prophets.

5:50 Why, what is so great about amelos, about toiling in Torah? The first approach to suggest here, before we go on a passionate rant, is well, it says chok. The following is to be ungraspable, uncomprehensible to the human mind. That's what a chok is the chokosayte lechu. Perhaps Rashi citing really this medrash here that it means amelos ba Torah? Perhaps the whole idea that studying in Torah brings all these goodies is something that's above our cognitive abilities. It doesn't really add up in our minds why it is that if somebody studies and studies and studies, it never actually takes his knowledge of law to become a lawyer, or knowledge of medicine and the human body anatomy to become a doctor If he never uses his chachma to do anything.

6:51 It doesn't really add up for us why that would be so great. You need the wisdom to do. What does it lead to? It can't just be wisdom in and of itself, but here by Torah it's different, bechukosai it's different, and maybe it's just uncomprehensible. Maybe in the upper worlds that when we learn, things happen that satisfies and brings a. I mean in hindsight it does become clear to us that only somebody who is Amal BaTorah really does reach supreme piety and devotion.

7:33 It does make a lot of sense to us that Torah is a part of the growing process to come close to Hashem, for no great sage, no great Jew has ever become a great sage and great Jew without toiling in Torah. We know that, but why and how? It seems like it's a chok. Maybe that's the approach that we just study Torah with amelos, because that's the way, and even if we don't understand it, maybe that would be an approach. Maybe that would be an approach. Or maybe, secondly, another approach of why in Bechukosai, teilechu means Amelos BaTorah and why that is needed to score the big points.

8:15 Because of what the Medrash says in a. I beg of you that you don't laugh at it, for the Almighty knows just how many people have been a part of this horrible medrash that we are told that if you do follow the decrees, follow the commandments, well then you'll have all the good in the world. But the imlotishma'uli, if you chose poorly in this ultimatum, then you don't learn. You are not omalba Torah. You repudiated the importance of toiling in Torah.

8:59 You said it wasn't that important. Well then you get all of these curses and the Medrash tells us the Imlotishm? Uli doesn't make much sense. If you don't listen to me, mat HaMalomar Lo Ta'asu, why would the Pesach go further and tell us that you didn't do the mitzvos and discussing why all the curses should befall someone. It says if you don't learn and if you don't do, and the Medrash is puzzled Well, of course, if the guy ain't learning, he's not doing. And the Medrash continues to go step by step down the slippery slope of the seven steps towards apostasy.

9:47 That means that somebody who doesn't learn will come to not do because you don't know how to do. That's why Torah study is important, but that's not why you get the curses, but rather not doing because you don't know how to learn or don't engage in a melos bat Torah. It leads you to have this really rough conscience that you feel like you really should be studying a bit more Talmud Torah K'nege K'kulam, feel like you really should be studying a bit more Talmud Torah K'nege K'kulam. One is supposed to study a little bit in the morning, a little bit in the evening, serious Kovati Itamah Torah.

10:33 But if one is not Amal, he isn't serious about his Torah study. Well then he begins not to encourage himself to get back into it. But sometimes he can then make up in his mind that the goal is actually different. Not everybody needs to learn and in fact, why is everybody else different? So obsessed with this? Aren't there 613 mitzvahs? Pick a different one. You begin to sweep the Talmud Torah, k'neged Kulam, under the rug and you begin to despise others. Step three towards renouncing your faith and eventually, step four, you begin to absolutely abhor the sages because every time you see them, they only remind you of your inadequacies and your lack of commitment and the poor choices that you have made.

11:29 You despise others, despise the sages and ultimately, when you despise the sages, you make a team against them. You don't support their institutions, you even call them the parasites they are mooching from all of the funds that need to go towards your chesed or other important educational institutions, all but anything to support the sages. For you despise the sages all because you can't stand your own inadequacies. That leads to you prohibiting, inhibiting and preventing people and the sages from studying.

12:13 You're now fighting back against Hashem and, mind you, we're only up to step five of this slippery slope of just that started with not being Oma'al Batara. Next, you don't learn, you don't do. You despise others, you hate the sages. Now you're not allowing others to do. What comes next? It all reads beautifully in Hebrew throughout the Pesukim you hate the sages. Now you're not allowing others to do. What comes next? It all reads beautifully in Hebrew throughout the Pesukim After this comes in this horrible sequence of events, but you begin to not even acknowledge that the mitzvot are from Sinai.

12:55 It was a mushal. A good story. That's really the old life of the Jew. We need to be progressive. We need to make new enactments. You have to live normally. All of this because you just didn't study and learn like you should. I'm Milos Batora. Eventually, after you've denied the mitzvos, denied all of the mitzvos, eventually it says you've become a total kofar. You renounce your faith.

13:36 You deny that HaKadosh Baruch Hu exists. But Talmud Lomar La'afar Chem, la'afri Chem is Brisi HaKol Sheyesh Bo Kol Amidas, halol U'soyf Shehu, koyfer Be'iker. You have fallen into denying Hashem's existence. The seven steps. Don't laugh, don't think it won't happen to me, because it is well documented that nobody ever has bad intentions, no one ever believes that they're doing the wrong thing, and the Yitzhar has a way that he's never going to be able to actually get you to touch the nuclear reactor.

14:23 But just let's get close to it. You begin to take a small step of. Let me ease up on my Torah study. You are not osik bator. You don't study, you don't act, you despise. You feel a nagging feeling. You deny more, you hate more. You become an ultimate non-believer, and this would be our second shot. Why it is that specifically Amelos BaTorah is the only way to save yourself and access the blessings. Because of this bone-chilling seven steps to hell, you become a denier because you didn't learn sufficiently and to really go through step by step with clarity about just how easy and how scary that medrash is, and specifically Rav Hirsch's brilliant letter about the concept.

15:25 He points just how the human body can go through these seven steps so quickly. The slope is like a black diamond ski slope Directly downward and quickly. It's enough information there to spend an entire podcast, if not multiple, on it. But there's something else that I want to discuss. It's something I'm passionate about. It's something that I'm even a bit enraged about, something that I really believe needs to be said and something that may be a noop shot in this Rashi. Nobody said it. I don't have any sources, except for if perhaps you would agree with me.

16:10 It makes a little bit of sense and it all begins this shot, number three, from a Gemara in Sanhedrin, why it is that Talmud Torah, that Amelos Ba'at Torah is everything. 99b in Sanhedrin, here we go. Omar Rabi, elazar Kol, adam le'omal, nivra. Every man was created to work. Hear that word. Amelos le'omal to toil, that's what we were created for, shemar. Oh, it's an open verse in scripture, in Eov Perikei Pasek Zion. Look it up. Ki adam le'omal, you lord.

16:53 Man was created to toil, to work, to struggle, to create, to grind. But the Gemara has an interesting question Ain't he Yodea? But I don't know. Iml om al-peh nivra. Iml om al-malacha, nivra. What type of work was man created to do? Speaking, speech work, after all, he does have that gift. That would be very telling about his job to work hard with his mouth. The human being, the only gift, the only creation to be endowed with the gift of speech. Maybe that is what we are supposed to work hard at.

17:33 Or maybe Amal Malacha, work hard business, work hard with our physical bodies. We don't know. The Pasuk continues. The Gemar continues Citing a Pasuk. Another Pasuk brings us more clarity and shows us that it's not for Amal Malacha. People are special. We can talk. We were created for the grinding and the working and the striving and the toiling of the mouth. Okay, when does the spirituality come in here? This just seems to be all about grinding in the mouth, maybe starting podcasts and that type, and just talking and talking and talking.

18:14 The Gemara still seems to be unsure of Adayin Eini Yodea, iml Amal Torah. Does the Gemara, does the Pasuk, mean that a man was created so that he should strive hard with the toiling of the mouth in Torah? Or Iml Amal Sikha? Maybe just Stam average, mundane speech? Maybe that is what I thought man was created for. He has the gift of talking. So work hard in it. Perfect your speech, become an eloquent speaker. Speak with many people, develop it, become a speech therapist. The Pasek says Yehoshua perak, aleph posekhes lo yamush sefer ha-teira hazeh. The Torah shall not cease.

18:56 Mipicha from your mouth. And the Omer, the Gemara says I see from here, that is from me. That's what a person has been created for. From this Gemara I want to suggest in fact, it is evident and clear the Gemara had a real, a real inkling, a real thought that we could be created just to work hard as a machine to either make money, become an athlete, a soccer star, or maybe the Gemara had a thought that maybe we were created to be able to become a big speaker. Just talk, talk, talk.

19:36 But what's clear from this Gemara is that there was never a thought that the human being wasn't created to work his tail off. That's a Dover passion To be Amal. That's the prerequisite, that's life. That's the only thing that happens down here. What else do you think the human body was created for? Of course you're going to work your tail off day and night to be successful in something. I see from this Gemara that the entire question of why Rashi chose the word, why the Medra says that the answer is specifically Amelos Batara is an absolute mistake.

20:20 That's not a question at all. Amelos is the only thing that the human body, specifically amelos by Torah, is an absolute mistake. That's not a question at all. Amelos is the only thing that the human body is going to do. The question is and the Kiddush is here in Rashi choose Torah and it's all going to work out the rant. The point here is that the question made a lot of sense to me and I heard others discussing it. Is that the question made a lot of sense to me and I heard others discussing it because there is a reality to us in which we aren't working hard, that we aren't grinding and hustling to be successful In 2023, 2024, it's amazing to see that actually success doesn't even take hard work.

21:03 Young ones are brought up given good test scores without working hard. It bothers me. I don't know why, but people can make so much money without even doing anything. I can't tell you how many successful, financially successful people I know that aren't hustlers. They press buttons. I guess they use their mind and they made smart investments. That's all great, fine and dandy, but they have a reality in which they don't use the human body to hustle. It's a life of leisure, but that's a life that the Torah doesn't define, has any place or ever was thought of to be a life on this earth For Adam la'am al-yulad.

21:57 The thoughts that one could study Torah any other way besides for with Amelos is asinine, is blasphemous. The Torah, the Mishnah, openly tells us that somebody who accepts upon himself to work hard in Torah, ma'avirin alov ol mitzvos, you don't need to. Or someone accepts upon himself to work the yoke of mitzvos and Torah study, he doesn't need to go into business. He fully accepted it. But somebody who does the opposite, who throws off the yoke of Torah and mitzvos immediately, they put upon him that he needs to go work and make a livelihood and really do a lot toil in business, because there is no option.

22:39 The reality is hustling. Toil and business, because there is no option, the reality is hustling. It is only this and now modern society, that there is a reality in which we just retire at 65 and there is no more grinding, no more hustling. It is so telling, so revealing, that when you go to a six o'clock shachar, you see the last generation, the older folk, the more experienced folk. And you go to a six o'clock shachris, you see the last generation, the older folk, the more experienced folk. And you go to the later shachris and you'll see all the younger, fresher spring chickens that need more sleep. The whole hashkafa, the whole weltanschang, the whole makeup of the teaching and the understanding of life is one that is you got to pump the brakes.

23:20 You don't necessarily have to always go your full speed. You don't need to wake up at 6. I need my beauty rest. It's a much more relaxed society. You know, there's something that they really it's the word for absolutely doing nothing. It's the synonym of couch potato, but it's very popular. There's a reality you've probably heard of it before, in which a human being will be totally idle, sitting on the couch. He ain't making money, he ain't learning, he ain't doing mitzvahs. He ain't playing couch. He ain't making money, he ain't learning, he ain't doing mitzvahs. He ain't playing soccer. He ain't going for a jog, he ain't talking to his mother, but he's just doing absolutely nothing.

24:01 But it isn't necessarily a bad thing because it's called. He's just chilling. Chilling means the absolute opposite of what the apostolic said, that Adam Amal said that Adam l'omel yulad, at least get up and go for a jog. It'd be best to choose Torah Amilis by Torah. That's how you stay focused. I was bothered a couple days ago I had to take one of my children somewhere in the afternoon and I saw it must have been tens of young gentlemen my age in the afternoon, and I saw it must have been tens of young gentlemen my age in the afternoon, just taking a nice walk, maybe with a friend, maybe with their spouse, and there's no problem with that.

24:47 But it wasn't even that nice of a day and it just hit me that it's just a different society we live in the grind, the hustling that wake up at 5 am, mindset, work till I drop to become successful in whatever it is the same mindset that my 90-year-old grandfather has. You wake up and the dream was to get yourself a Cadillac. The dream was to make it in the world. The dream to hustle, to have a process and a goal that any just middle three-hour, two-hour walk in the middle of the day would sound crazy to them.

25:38 But so many of the modern society, it just seems like the lack of hustle, the lack of which isn't a crazy word of amelos, the lack of adum la'amul yulad and the knowledge, the requisite knowledge of the human body was made to grind, made to hustle. Perhaps we can define that the word, the blessing that we make in the morning help me to have success in toiling in your Torah Hashem. Give me that mindset. We can say that I hustle for Torah.

26:19 I hustle meaning it takes over my mind, I obsess about it, I constantly think about it, I brood over it, think about how I can do it better, analyze it, examine it, maybe even like what Moshe had. Listen here to how Moshe do it better, analyze it, examine it, maybe even like what Moshe had, listen here to how Moshe's hustle was. The Medrash says. The Medrash says that Moshe talking. You all know how much pain I've been through, how much amelos I've been through to get the Torah, how much hustle Moses went up to the mountain, up on top of Horeb, atop of Mount Sinai.

27:12 He was with Hashem for 40 days. Let me tell you what happened while I was up there. I went in to where all the angels were sitting and I eventually went into the uppers and where there were these heavenly angels and eventually even higher, more intense, more fiery angels that the entire world could be singed and destroyed, annihilated and decimated if there was even the slightest proximity to one of these Serafim, I fought them. I went, fighting them off to get the Torah.

28:00 The message continues how they were questioning him. You can't let the Torah go down to the people. Moshe Rabbeinu, like Shemshon against the Plishtim, fighting back, tearing down the heavens to bring Torah down. And the ultimate manifestation of supreme hustle to bring the Torah down to the Jewish people, amelos, bataira, the whole point of what's going on down here. If you really want to just study Torah and know it easily, without any pain, without any agia, without any amelos, then you can stay inside of your mother's womb and have the Torah spoon fed to you. That's not why Yaakov was jostling to get out of his mother's womb.

28:47 He wanted the amelos. He craved it. Amelos bataira, the hustle for Torah, the grind that never stops for Torah, the process of obsessing in your commitment and driving yourself harder to get to the ultimate satisfaction and truth. It's the same reason why the Vilna Gon denied and slammed the door on an angel that wanted to come and teach him the secrets of the Torah, because he said I don't want it like that, I want to work for it, for Adom le'om al-yulad. You take away my amelos and you take away my entire existence. Amelos b'tayra, when you make the process and the love of trying to get clarity in Hashem's Torah the central point of your life, you have a hustle and a job that gives you such divine satisfaction.

29:47 When you make Admelos Bat-Torah the prime driving factor in your life, you find peace because the body is finally doing what it is meant to be doing. You are doing what you were created for. When you are Amal BaTaira, it makes so much sense why you get blessed with all of the blessings written in Parshas, bechukosai and in the books of the prophets. In Bechukosai, teileichu, shetiu, amal BaTaira, work that robotic body, hustle and choose Tyra, because by doing that you find inner peace, you find blessing, you find a beautiful life.

30:53 Maybe it's just a, maybe it's a, a chok, maybe it's a knowledge that we are to dance and party in and enjoy. It's just our toy, it's our chokma that gives us purity and enables us to steig. Maybe it just keeps us from falling down and slipping down that horrible course of action that will lead to the catastrophic ending of the seven steps down towards absolutely a denial of your faith and religion. But, amelis Bataira, because how else is there to do anything other than the way that it used to be done, which is to reach success by being Amal, by waking up early, hustling, where you barely even have enough time to use the restroom, as the Gemara says that the Kohanim would use it early and use the restroom late in the evening so that they wouldn't miss a second of their job.

31:59 Amelos Bataira, because it's the only way to live. And Amelos Bataira, because that's the path and the only way to get to inner peace and total happiness.