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PREGĂTIREA PENTRU STUDIU
2.01 Baal HaSulam,
“Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Item 17
Hence, the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith in the Creator and in His guidance in reward and punishment, as our sages said, “Your employer is liable to pay you the reward for your work.” One should aim one’s labor to be for the Mitzvot of the Torah, and in this way, he will be rewarded with enjoying the light in it, and his faith will strengthen and grow through the power in this light, as it is written, “It shall be health to your navel, and marrow to your bones” (Proverbs 3:8).
2.02 RABASH,
Article No. 12 (1988), “What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”
A person should examine with which purpose does he want to observe the Mitzva [commandment] of learning Torah? That is, does he engage in Torah because of the Torah itself, in order to know how to observe the rules of doing the Mitzvot, or is the learning of Torah itself his whole intention, and knowing the rules of doing the Mitzvot is a completely different matter for him? meaning he is learning Torah for two reasons.
However, even while learning Torah for the sake of learning Torah, he should still distinguish with which intention he is learning. Is it to observe the commandments of the Creator, as it is written, “And you shall reflect on Him day and night,” or is he learning in order to receive the light of Torah because he needs the light of Torah in order to cancel the evil within him, as our sages said, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice”? It turns out that he is learning in order to obtain the spice, as our sages said, “The light in it reforms him.”
Certainly, prior to learning Torah, a person should examine the reason for which he is learning Torah, for any act needs to have some purpose that causes him to do the act. It is as our sages said, “A prayer without an aim is as a body without a soul.” For this reason, before he comes to learn Torah he must prepare the intention.
2.03 RABASH,
Article No. 29 (1986), “Lishma and Lo Lishma”
One must try to remember the goal while studying Torah, so it will always be before his eyes what he wants to receive from the study, that the study will impart greatness and importance of the Creator.
Also, while observing the Mitzvot, not to forget the intention that thanks to observing the Mitzvot, the Creator will lift the concealment on spirituality from him and he will receive a feeling of the greatness of the Creator.
However, it is hard work observing Torah and Mitzvot with the intention to thereby be rewarded with approaching the Creator—to obtain the greatness of the Creator so he can bring Him content- ment because of the importance of the Creator, that this will be his reward and he has no desire for any other reward for his work.
2.04 RABASH,
Article No. 12 (1988), “What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”
A person must make a great effort before he comes to learn so that his learning will bear fruit and good results, meaning so the learning will bring him the light of Torah, by which it will be possible to reform him. Then, through the Torah, he becomes a wise disciple.
What is a “wise disciple”? Baal HaSulam said that it is a student who learns from the wise. That is, the Creator is called “wise,” and a person who learns from Him is called a “disciple of the wise.
2.05 RABASH,
Article No. 875, “Three Lines – 4”
Before one is rewarded with emerging from self-love and doing everything in order to bestow, called Lishma, although he learns all these matters as they are, they are only names without any clarification, meaning that he has no attainment in those things that he is learning, since he has no knowledge about the material of the upper roots, called “the holy names,” or Sefirot and Partzufim [pl. of Partzuf ].
We can learn the upper matters, called “the wisdom of Kabbalah,” only by way of Segula [rem- edy/power], since they can bring a person desire and yearning to adhere to the Creator because of the Kedusha [holiness] of the matters that speak of the holy names. Conversely, in the revealed Torah, he must believe that the whole Torah is the names of the Creator. It follows that these matters are more capable (as explained in the essay, “The Giving of the Torah”).
When a person learns the upper matters in order for it to bring him closer to Kedusha, it causes a nearing of the lights. This means that this learning will cause him to thereby be rewarded with aiming all his actions in order to bestow. This is called “work in the manner of preparation,” where he prepares himself to be worthy of entering the King’s palace and to adhere to Him.
2.06 Ramchal,
Derech HaShem
One who purifies and sanctifies himself by his actions will draw through his learning bestowal to the extent of the preparation that he had prepared himself. And the more he prepares, the more precious and powerful becomes the study.
2.07 Pri Tzadik,
VaYeshev, Item 3
The first Hassidim [adherents of the Hassidut movement] would spend one hour in prayer so as to aim their hearts to their Father in heaven. The word “aim” means the directness of the heart; it is to direct the heart so it is not scattered into the passions and lusts of worldly matters, but only to aim directly to his Father in heaven.
2.08 Rav Chaim Vital,
Pri Etz Chaim, Gate “Conducts of Learning,” Chapter 1
My teacher would say that the heart of the intention of reading in the Torah depends on aiming to connect one’s heart to its root through the Torah in order to complete the upper tree and complete the upper Adam [man] and correct him, for this is the whole purpose of man’s creation and the purpose of his engagement in the Torah.
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