Kevias Ittim: Setting a Rendezvous with the Melamed Torah

Maseches Shabbos says that one of the questions that we're asked L'osid Lavo is Kava'ata Itim L'Torah, meaning that it's not enough that we learn on a daily basis, but there have to be set times, times that are designated and that are sacrosanct for Talmud Torah. What's the Pshat? As long as you get it done, no? I mean if every day a person learns, Nafka Mina whether today he learns at 6 o'clock and tomorrow at 8 o'clock and the next day at 5 p.m. So on one level, the answer is ירדה תורה לסוף דעתו של אדם. That human nature being what it is, many of us if we don't have Kevius Itim, so without the Kevius Itim, the Kevius for learning will erode. If there isn't a particular time which is inviolable, which is sacrosanct for learning, so then invariably to too many of us it will happen that a day, days will pass when we don't learn. And on a very practical level, the requirement of Kevius Itim helps us compensate for a human weakness. In general, we do well when we have structure that reinforces our commitment and partners together with our willpower instead of being dependent entirely upon our willpower. But the Rav zichrono l'vracha suggested an understanding on another level as well. So, משל למה הדבר דומה, the Mashal is an introduction to what he said. משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say you have an old friend and you want to get together. Okay, so you're gonna meet, you're gonna meet for a cup of coffee somewhere. Okay. So he says, so when are we gonna meet? You say whenever. Whenever. You know, you name the coffeehouse and we'll meet whenever. What do you mean we'll meet whenever? If you're meeting someone, the only way you meet, right, on the human level, the only way you meet is if you coordinate a time. Otherwise, maybe you'll show up there at 9:00 in the morning and he'll have been there from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. the previous night. When there's a meeting involved, so by definition the meeting is there's not just a mutual agreement that we should meet, but if the meeting is actually gonna happen, you have to coordinate a time. So the Rav says, Chazal wanted to impress upon us that when a person learns Torah, there's a rendezvous with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's a meeting. It's not just that the person is sitting down. No, the Gemara, the Gemara doesn't have to know at what hour I'm gonna pull it off the shelf and open it. But Chazal obviously Aliba d'emes Hakadosh Baruch Hu is there whenever a person sits down to learn. But דיברה תורה כלשון בני אדם to that it should register with us that we should recognize that when we sit and learn, right, the famous Midrash, I mean the Rishonim already quote it but then probably more famously the Nefesh Hachayim on Veyikchu Li Trumah, when a person sits and learns, whatever he's holding by learning, so there's a meeting with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. A meeting needs a time. To recognize that Zchus that whenever we sit down to learn, Shchina k'negdo, אפילו יחיד יושב ועוסק בתורה is Shchina k'negdo. My brother Hashem yikom damo commented once that the Matbea Habracha of המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל, so he interpreted it what it means is that Hakadosh Baruch Hu, whenever we learn Torah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is מלמד תורה לעמו ישראל. The special Siyata Dishmaya that a person has if he's... Yearning, striving, exerting himself to learn Torah, to penetrate amitos shel Torah, so that special Siyata d'Shmaya, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל not just by virtue of Maamad Har Sinai a millennia ago, but whenever we sit down to learn, again, because kavati itim laTorah, there's a time because learning Torah means that there's a meeting going on between the lomeid Torah and Hakadosh Baruch Hu who's המלמד תורה לעמו ישראל. Have a good Erev Shabbos.