369. Joy While Learning Torah

November 1982, Jerusalem

Question: If a person does everything in order to receive, meaning that all he does is only with the aim for his own benefit, then what is the difference between enjoying corporeal things or deriving pleasure from words of Torah?

We can understand this in the manner that a person eats fish, meat, and wine on weekdays and enjoys it. This eating is called “optional eating.” But when he eats meat, fish, and wine on a Shabbat [Sabbath] meal, it is a Mitzva [commandment] of the delight of Shabbat.

Mitzvot [pl. of Mitzva] do not require intention, meaning to aim only in order to bestow. Rather, he should aim that he is doing this only because of a Mitzva. Thus, when he enjoys the Shabbat meal, he observes a Mitzva although this Mitzva is still Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], meaning that he cannot aim in order to bestow. Still, from Lo Lishma he will come to Lishma [for Her sake]. It follows that he is observing a Mitzva.

But when he eats an optional meal during the weekdays, it cannot be said that this optional meal will bring him to Lishma. It turns out that when he learns Torah and enjoys, although it is not in order to bestow, he observes the Mitzva of learning Torah with joy, since he enjoys it, so he is observing a Mitzva. It follows that from Lo Lishma he will come to Lishma. Thus, this is the right way to achieve Lishma. Conversely, other pleasures do not lead him to Lishma.

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