Staying in Touch
The Gemara[1] provides the background to the institution of reading the Torah in public on Mondays and Thursdays, indicating that this enactment goes back to the earliest days of the Jewish people in the desert. In fact, it is based on a verse in our parsha:
“And they traveled three days in the desert and they did not find water.”[2] Those who expound verses metaphorically said water refers to Torah, as it says “Ho, all who are thirsty go to the water.”[3] As soon as they went three days without water they instantly became weary [and complained]. The prophets among them rose and instituted that they should read from the Torah on Shabbos, Monday and Thursday, in order that they not go three days without Torah.
It is interesting to consider when exactly were these three days that led us to act contentiously through lack of learning Torah. How far into our wanderings in the desert were we? The Gemara doesn’t discuss it. However, if we look at the verses in their source, we will see that these were the three days immediately following the passing of the Jewish people through the Red Sea.
This casts everything the Gemara says in an entirely new light.
The splitting of the Red Sea was one of the greatest miracles ever experienced by our people. One can only imagine the feelings of euphoria, elevation and inspiration that we felt as we passed through the sea with the water as walls on either side. Emerging on the other side, we saw that our oppressors of so many decades who had chased after us to capture and re-enslave us had been drowned and we were finally free. The feelings of inspiration from that occasion would no doubt stay with us for months — if not years — to come!
In the event, the Gemara says they lasted for three days.
The crucial lesson here is that as uplifting as any event may be, that elevation is in danger of dissipating fairly swiftly if a person does not take steps to preserve it. Returning back to one’s everyday concerns can serve to dull very quickly the inspiration one felt just a couple of days ago.
Equally crucial to note, however, is the measure which was introduced as the antidote to this dissipation — the institution of regular Torah learning. How does learning Torah achieve this?
An elevating event comes from a place of elevated living. It is an experience which calls to a person to rise above his mundane concerns and lead a meaningful and idealistic existence. Once a person re-engages in his day-to-day affairs, he loses the connection with that message; he ceases “speaking that language,” and hence the effects of that inspiring event are lost.
The study of Torah serves to keep a person connected to the elevated place where that event came from. It serves to maintain a consciousness that higher (and godlier) things are expected of him. Moreover, it does not make any difference which area of Torah one may be studying, for the underlying theme of all Torah study is determining how Hashem wants me to act in any given situation, how He wants the world to look, and what I can do to help make it look that way. That awareness keeps a person logged in to the source and substance of his elevating experiences.
These verses quoted by the Gemara form the final section of the Torah reading for the seventh day of Pesach, which commemorates the splitting of the Red Sea. We may ask: Why does the Torah reading not end with the Song of the Sea itself, which was undoubtedly the high point of that occasion? Why do we continue reading about their ensuing journey in the desert where they complained? It doesn’t seem relevant to the story at hand and, if anything, seems to end on a lower note!
The answer is: If we do not read those ensuing verses about how they complained within three days of crossing the Red Sea, we are in danger of losing the inspiration from reading about the crossing, as surely as they lost the inspiration at the time of the event. If we would all go home after the Song of the Sea, we would have missed out on the most important part of the message: without regular Torah learning, it won’t stay with you![4]
In other words, the reason we read about their disconnect from the experience is in order to ensure that we remain connected to it. That will, indeed, be a worthwhile lesson learned.
[1] Bava Kama 82a.
[2] Shemos 15:22.
[3] Yeshayah 55:1.
[4] HaRav Avrohom Gurwitz shlita, Va'anafeha Arzei El.