Tefillah - 052 Asking For Understanding In Torah

The Tri-Fold Connection – Hashem, the Torah, and the Jewish People

אתה חונן לאדם דעת – “You bestow upon man understanding.” In this blessing, we are asking Hashem that we should understand our Torah learning.

There is a famous statement of Chazal, “There are three connections that are intertwined with each other: The Jewish people, the Torah, and Hashem.” This is parallel to the three pillars which uphold the world: Torah (to learn Torah) Avodah (to serve Hashem), and chessed (to love other Jews). In this prayer of Shemoneh Esrei, we allude to all three aspects – that a Jew prays to Hashem for success in learning the Torah. In this prayer, this tri-fold connection is revealed – the person, the Jew, turns to Hashem through prayer, in order to succeed in Torah.

Connecting Deeply To The Torah

It is possible for a person to always be learning Torah, yet he isn’t inwardly connected to the Torah. Only when a person reveals the Torah as his source does he truly connect to the Torah. The Torah is called Torah Ohr, a “Torah of light” – it is a great spiritual light.

Our Torah learning, in its outer aspect of it, consists of our knowledge about the facts of Torah that we learn about. When we exert ourselves in Torah, we can finish tractate upon tractate, and keep adding onto our knowledge. But the knowledge that we pick up from Torah is just the tool to get to the real essence of the Torah. The actual Torah is when we find ourselves in it.

It’s not like when you buy a house, that you acquire something outside yourself and make it yours. Although the Torah is “acquired” in 48 ways, it’s not some outer entity that you bring into yourself. The Torah is the source of all of Creation, for “Hashem looked into the Torah to create the world”, thus, you are really a part of the Torah.

We came from the Torah, and therefore, your own individuality is really found in the Torah. This is not some intellectual thought. It is an understanding which our soul can reach.

When we remove the materialism upon us, we can truly connect to the Torah, and then we can realize where we come from – that we come from the Torah. Of course, we come from Hashem’s word Who created us, but Hashem created us from the Torah. We must actually feel this and sense this, with our soul; it is not enough just to ‘know’ about this.

Getting Used To “Thinking In Learning”

The Ramchal says (in sefer Derech Eitz Chaim) that the way of the wise is to always think as they walk. When a person learns Torah, is he just being a thinker? Is he just using his regular thinking and applying it to learning Torah? Is he just learning for 10 hours in the same way that a person learns for 1 hour?

Of course, in the beginning of a person’s way of learning Torah, he needs to get himself to think more; he needs to strain his mind a bit to think into the Torah he learns. This is the very first stage in order to succeed in learning, and it needs to be done sensibly. But this is not yet what it means to always be ‘thinking in learning’ which the Ramchal is talking about.

The real way to always think in Torah is to get used to thinking in Torah not because we are being forced to so (although we do need to strain our minds a bit and force ourselves to think, similar to how we were forced to accept the Torah), but because we desire to think about Torah. This is a power in our soul called cheifetz hasichli (desire of the intellect). When our mind enjoys to always think about Torah, this is what the Ramchal means that the way of the wise is to always think.

It is impossible to live a true kind of life if a person isn’t always thinking in learning. But the thinking has to becoming from our cheifetz hasichli (or a desire for daas, as the Ramchal writes in the beginning of sefer Derech Hashem). The more we get used to thinking in learning, the more our mind will become opened to enjoying thoughts of Torah on a constant basis.

Reb Chaim Soloveitchik zt”l would send his son the Brisker Rov zt”l to always ask questions, even when he was a little boy, so that he would get used to thinking. Even as the Brisker Rov was about to enter his chuppah, his father asked him some questions in Torah to make him think. The reason behind his training was because a person has to always think in learning.

Getting used to always thinking in learning can transform a person’s life. There are people who are sitting and learning Torah for many years, and they can sit for hours in front of a Gemara, but their mind and heart isn’t opened yet to thinking in learning. It could even be that the person has chiddushim in his learning, but his intellect and heart is not opened yet to always think about his learning!

A person has to daven and cry to Hashem for success along with this, along with practical exertion on his part to get there.

Our Higher Intellect – The Neshamah

When we learn Torah, there are two ways how our mind is used. The initial level of our mind, the superficial level, is to try to understand one’s learning. The inner way to use the mind is to yearn for the words of the Torah that one learns, and this is how one really connects with his soul to the Torah. The light of the neshamah is really found in the seichel\intellect, and a person has to reach it [through exertion and prayer].

If a person doesn’t reach this, he might have some enjoyment in learning, such as when he makes a siyum [completion of learning a tractate in Gemara\Talmud], and he might feel that his soul pulls him toward learning; all of this is wonderful, but it is still just the beginning of learning. It is not yet the pinnacle of success in Torah learning.

When the neshamah is being accessed through our mind – when we yearn to always think about what we are learning – that is how we access our higher intellect in learning, and that is the way of how we truly connect to the Torah.

Reaching The Intellect of the Neshamah: Through Mental Exertion and Prayer

But we need exertion [and prayer] to get there.[1]

A person can be learning Torah for many years, but his intellect can be the same as a non-Jew’s intellect, thus he is only using his lower intellect to learn Torah. He won’t reach a true connection to Torah. It is commendable of course that he uses his mind to learn Torah, but he doesn’t reach his neshamah through it.

In order to reach our higher intellect - which comes from our neshamah in the mind - we need exertion to get to that inner place. [Through getting used to thinking in learning, and through prayer to Hashem for success].

When a person reaches the intellect that comes from his neshamah, the Chazon Ish describes this as an endless kind of joy that the mind can experience. It is there that a person really connects to Torah and enjoys a connection to Hashem through it.

There is a superficial kind of Torah learning and an inner kind of learning.

Superficial learning is when a person uses his regular mind that he is born with to learn Torah. A person might go his whole life and think that he has reached his purpose in life by always using his mind to learn Torah.

This can certainly help a person in the beginning of a person’s way as he is starting to really learn, and I do not mean to negate the importance of it, but it is not yet the depth of Torah learning. It is not enough just to work hard on knowing the words of Rebbi Akiva Eiger or to leave off with a question on his words. We have to reveal our neshamah through our intellect.

Asking Hashem For Daas: Asking For Revelation of Our Neshamah In Our Torah Learning

אתה חונן לאדם דעת- We ask Hashem for understanding in Torah. This is not just because we are asking Hashem to have clarity in our learning and to know the true understanding of our learning. That is wonderful too, but that is not all there is to our Torah learning. We cannot get to the truth of Torah on a constant basis if we just use our regular intellect.

Of course, when we use our regular mind all the time to think as we learn Torah, we will receive siyata d’shamaya (Heavenly assistance) sometimes to get to the true understanding of our learning, but it will still not be on a regular basis.

The only way to understand the true understanding of our learning on a regular basis is when we access the higher intellect of our neshamah [when we are yearning to always think in Torah].

The ‘Neshamah’ – A Whole Different Perspective

When we see someone davening, we do not see what’s going on in his heart. We can’t see his deep feelings. All we see are his facial expression and his hands moving around as he prays, but we can’t feel what he’s yearning and feeling. These are heart matters, and we can’t see what’s going on in another’s heart; “The heart is not revealed to the mouth.”

In the same vein, when it comes to Torah learning, the depth of one’s learning cannot be discerned by another human eye. When someone is using his higher intellect of his neshamah, a person who sees him cannot tell how he learns differently than anyone else who tries hard to understand his learning, because since this is a heart matter, it cannot be seen, and therefore an onlooker can’t tell the difference.

When a person is unaware of this concept, he thinks that life is all about exertion in Torah learning and nothing more. He doesn’t know of the difference between lower intellect and higher intellect. “What’s the difference?” he thinks. “The point is that you should always think in learning. That is the point of life – to always have our mind active to always think in learning.”

But it’s a totally different kind of life when a person accesses his neshamah, his higher intellect, in his learning. It’s a whole different kind of understanding of the Torah. It is a kind of learning which connects a person deeply to the Torah and to Hashem. Without revealing the higher intellect, a person can learn Torah his whole life, but he never gets to the deep connection to Hashem and to Torah from it.

In Conclusion

אתה חונן לאדם דעת - We are asking Hashem for understanding in our Torah learning. In this blessing, we are really asking Hashem that the intellect of our neshamah should become more revealed in our learning, and not that our regular mind should be able to understand the Torah.

May we merit to reveal our inner understanding of our Torah, the understanding that comes from our neshamah, so we can connect with the depths of our soul and thereby achieve the tri-fold connection of Hashem, the Torah and the Jewish people.