CHAPTER THIRTEEN
SACRIFICE FOR TORAH STUDY AND SURRENDER OF
THINGS WHICH PREVENTS VIGILANCE IN TORAH
STUDY

1. The gemarah in massechet Brachot (71b) says, “Once the
   wicked ruling kingdom decreed that Yisrael may not involve
   themselves with Torah. Rebi Akiva came, gathered groups of
   people and publicly taught them Torah… it was but a few days
   later that they caught Rebi Akiva and imprisoned him. When
   they brought out Rebi Akiva to kill him it was the time for the
   reading of the Shema. As they were combing his flesh with iron
   combs, he was accepting the yoke of heaven upon himself. His
   disciples said to him, ‘Our teacher, even now?’ he replied, ‘All my
   life I was troubled by the verse in shema, “(Love Hashem) with all
   your life, which means even if they take your life”, I always asked
   myself, “When will the opportunity come my way to fulfil this?”
   Now that it has come my way should I not fulfil it? …’ (See text
   inside for the entire happening).”
2. The gemarah in masechet Sanhedrin (13b and 14a) says, “Reb
   Yehuda and Rav Baram said, ‘Remember that man for good; his
   name is Rebi Yehuda Ben Baba, if not for him the laws of fines
   would have been forgotten and anulled from Yisrael. [to pass
   judgement on fines one needs a rav with semicha and the
   gentiles had decreed against giving semicha – see further.] Once
   the wicked kingdom decreed against Yisrael that anyone who
   gives semicha would be killed and whoever would receive
   semicha would be killed … what did Rebi Yehuda Ben Baba
   do?… he gave semicha …to five elders; Rebi Meir, Rebi Yehuda
   [Bar Iloy], Rebi Shimon [Bar Yochai], Rebi Yosi [Bar Chalafta] and
   Rebi Elozor Ben Shamua. Rav Avyah also added Reb Nechemia.
   When their enemies came to know about these. He said to them,
   [Rebi Yehuda Ben Baba to his disciples] ‘My children, run!’. They
   said to him, ‘Rebi what will become of you?’ He replied, ‘Behold I
   am cast before them like a stone which will not be overturned.’
   They said to him, [the gentiles] ‘Move from there! Until they
   stabbed him with three hundred iron spears and made him like
   a sieve. [Meaning that they gave him a terrible death].”
3. The gemarah in massechet Avodah Zarah (18:1) explains that
   at the time when the gentiles decreed forbidding Torah study,
   Rebi Chanina Ben Tradyon was still busy learning Torah and
   gathering groups in public to learn Torah whilst holding a Torah
   scroll against his chest. The gentiles came along and burned
   him.
4. Even though generally to save a persons life takes priority
   over most other things, however at a time of a decree against
   performing mitzvot the law is different. Look carefully at Yoreh
   Deah (127) for details on this topic, when saving a life takes
   precedence and when not, there is no place to elaborate further.
5. In any case, we see from all these extracts that our teachers,
   the Tanaim gave up their lives for the mitzvah of teaching Torah
   to the congregation. We see from this the magnitude of the
   importance of Torah study, and how a person is commanded to
   give up on so many things if they are at the expense of his Torah
   study. If world leaders gave up their very lives in order to teach
   Torah, surely there are many things that we can surrender order
   to study Torah.
6. In massechet Shabbat (83b) we see, “Raish Lokish said, ‘The
   words of Torah find permanence only in one who kills himself
   over them, as the verse says, “This is the law when a person dies
   in a tent”. It is obvious here that the intention here is not that a
   person kill himself in order to learn Torah, since if he would be
   dead, how could he learn?! More than that, the mitzvah of
   preserving a human life is more important. [The examples
   brought above were at a time of decree, as mentioned there.]
   Instead the intention of the gemarah with these stories is to
   show that there are very many things which are precious to a
   person, like for example if a person has a very strong leaning to
   a certain profession, or a very great desire to become monetarily
   wealthy, and he feels in his heart that it is so hard for him to
   give up on his desires, as if he were nearly to die because of it.
   This is exactly what the gemarah speaks about here, that the
   true way to acquire Torah is to forgo these desires in order to
   learn Torah. This is the way to attain Torah. The above examples
   of desires are of things which touch very much on the future of a
   person. The same also applies to smaller things. If someone is in
   doubt how to spend the next few hours, whether to spend the
   time learning Torah or to go and converse about an incident
   that happened which very much interests him, or any other
   thing which will waste his time from learning, he may feel that it
   is very hard for him to give up this thing. Here lays the mitzvah
   mentioned in the gemarah, that by breaking this desire and
   going to learn, against his own strong will, he suffers a partial
   aspect of death, he kills that desire. This is one of the
   acquisitions of Torah.
7. The gemarah implies more here. In reality Torah study
   necessitates a person to forgo even his most basic necessities.
   We see this in massechet Avot, “That is the way of the Torah,
   you eat bread and salt and you drink a set measure of water, you
   sleep on the floor and you labor in Torah. If you do so, you are
   fortunate and it is good for you. You are fortunate in this world
   and it will be good for you in the next world.” The reality is
   however that it is not generally necessary to sacrifice one’s
   absolute bare necessities in order to learn Torah. We therefore
   brought present day examples which are more widespread
   nowadays. These are also included in the intention of the
   gemarah. Still a person still has to know that if Hashem forbid,
   things turn around, and a test comes, in order to learn Torah he
   may have to forgo even basic necessities. He may even have to
   live in the very restricted way, described in the mishna in
   massechet Avot. He should strengthen himself to stand as firm
   as a flint stone and as an iron pillar and not to abandon Torah,
   as Chazal say, “One (thing achieved) with difficulty is better than
   a hundred without difficulty.”
8. The gemarah Shabbat (83b) says further, “R’ Yonatan would
   say, ‘A person should never hold himself back from going to the
   Bet Midrash or from learning words of Torah, even at the time of
   one’s death, as the verse says, “This is the law of a person who
   dies in a tent”, even at the time of death one should be busy
   with Torah.” In general, a person’s challenge in Torah study is
   not at the time of his death, rather whilst he is still alive. Of
   course from the words of the gemarah regarding death one must
   take a lesson for the many hours which could be used for Torah
   study. Sometimes it is difficult for a person to imagine using his
   free time for Torah, and it can be a very remote idea to spend
   spare hours in the Bet Midrash, either because of his personal
   situation, or because of the individual details of that particular
   time. Nevertheless from the words of the gemarah we see that
   one is still obligated to learn; since if even at the time of death a
   person should not hold himself back from going to the Bet
   Midrash and from busying himself with Torah, how much more
   so all the times when a person has minor hindrances from
   learning, they are obviously of a much lesser degree.