Behar-Bechukosai - If Ameylus Was Easy

With Hashem’s help -

אִם־בְּחֻקֹּתַ֖י תֵּלֵ֑כוּ וְאֶת־מִצְותַ֣י תִּשְׁמְר֔וּ וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָֽם

“If you follow my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;” (Vayikra 26:3)

רש"י: אם בחקתי תלכו. יָכוֹל זֶה קִיּוּם הַמִּצְווֹת, כְּשֶׁהוּא אוֹמֵר וְאֶת מִצְוֹתַי תִּשְׁמְרוּ וַעֲשִיתֶם אֹתָם הֲרֵי קִיּוּם הַמִּצְווֹת אָמוּר, הָא מָה אֲנִי מְקַיֵּם אִם בְּחֻקֹּתַי תֵּלֵכוּ? שֶׁתִּהְיוּ עֲמֵלִים בַּתּוֹרָה (ספרא):

If you follow my statutes—one might think that means the fulfillment of the commandments—but when the verse states “and you shall keep My commandments and do them”, it is plain that in that passage there is mentioned the “fulfillment of the commands.” How then must I explain אם בחקתי תלכו? That you should study toil in the study of Torah laboriously.

So, another shmooze about ameylus!!!!!!!!

I’ve heard a thousand of these; I’m sure you have too.

Cringe

There are many words that make us cringe. For us who struggled in yeshivah, ‘ameylus’ is one of them.

But this is Gibor. We walk through the cringe—and come out stronger.

Not going to rant about Yeshivas, they are amazing.

For now, let’s stop running and start dissecting.

Rashi doesn't carry the same PTSD we do, and he says this is the most pashut pshat of this pasuk.

So what does ameylus mean?

Before we get to ameylus, we need to quickly understand where our yeshiva trauma around learning comes from.

There are two significant gaps when it comes to most of these issues.

1. What the thing is isn’t clear.
2. Even if it’s clear, the how is murky.

For example, getting up on time for shachris.

Let's say you are the rebbe; the thing itself is clear: you need to get up on time.

The steps for getting up may be clear to you, but for someone who is not in the habit of getting up on time, those steps are as clear as a mikvah in Meah Shearim 10 minutes before Shkia.

That is to say, not clear at all.

You need to understand where the guy is coming from and figure out a way to help him get the steps.

The same is true for ameylus.

What Ameylus Isn’t

Actually, ameylus may have a problem both ways. It's not clear what it is, and it's not clear how to do it.

It can't be sitting and reading the words and translation and even discussing the meaning.

That's plain ole’ learning. That's geshmak.

Torah should be geshmak, but that's not ameylus.

Reading things and chatting about them is, I'm sorry everyone, not particularly difficult.

It can't be that.

The translation of Amielus is toil or exertion.

Maybe this means I need to strain my forehead, scrunch it up real good, and hope a novel idea pops into my head.

No. It's not healthy to strain.

Maybe it means reading the same words ten, twenty, or a hundred times until a novel thought enters my head.

No. A famous line about doing something over and over expecting a different result comes to mind.

Maybe it means sitting the full four hours of first seder with minimal breaks.

While it is admirable, also no. We all know what happened to those sitting in the shiur of Rav Huna.

Nope, to the no.

This is where many, myself included, get stuck. Slamming your head into a wall hoping you get better at learning is silly. And many, unfortunately, run for the hills when that finally dawns on them.

To move forward, let’s take a step back.

What might this look like if it were easy?

There is this business guy, Tim Ferriss, who wrote a cool book, “The Four-Hour Workweek.”

When trying to deal with a problem, he would ask himself, “What might this look like if it were easy?”

What would getting up for shachris look like if it were easy?

Well, when the alarm rings, you get up right away, get ready, and arrive on time to shachris.

Now you have to ask yourself, “Why are any of these parts not working right?”

Maybe you're snoozing the alarm, or your routine is too convoluted; maybe you didn't prepare the night before.

What steps can you take so that the process would be a no-brainer?

Same with ameylus; how would it work if it were easy?

We know it's not straining yourself; we know it's not sitting around waiting for an angel to pop the sugya into your head.

Breaking Open Doors

While looking around my seforim shelves, I pulled out my old, trusty, rusty, dusty Peninim On The Torah, Volume 4, and found this old gem.

I think I wrote my bar mitzvah speech from that sefer, and probably every single dvar torah I ever gave from 1999 to 2006.

There is this fascinating concept brought by Horav Yosef Leib Bloch, Rosh Yeshiva of Telshe Yeshiva, twice over, who wrote a very special sefer called Shiurei Daas. We’ll be going into to that sefer at length sometime in the future.

He said that a person must first have ameylus before he can be mechadesh anything.

Interesting. And now a bigger problem for us.

Ameylus is not coming up with complex, difficult chidisum in the sugya; that's out. All that hemming and hawing with the chavrusa, that is not ameylus.

No amount of straining, or waiting, or even praying will get you to Ameylus.

Rav Bloch talked about Rav Shimon Shkop.

He said, “The Gaon Reb Shimon was unique in his ability to not accept any statement or logic, regardless of its elementary nature, as being a given. He would delve into everything, searching for its source. Indeed, during his youth, while he was a student at Volozhiner Yeshiva, they said about him, “He breaks through open doors.” His uniqueness was that he left nothing unturned.”

Kids are cruel.

The Penimim on the Torah continues with this fascinating line.

“Rav Bloch explains that Newton reached his conclusion regarding the law of gravity as a result of asking a simple question concerning an accepted reality. Harav Bloch concludes that it is inherently more difficult to delve into areas that seem to be comprehensible.”

So, Ameylus is willing to ask hard questions about things most people take for granted and accept as settled.

Radical Curiosity

Ameylus isn’t sweat; it’s radical curiosity—questioning the lines everyone else skims.

Now this is getting us somewhere.

Ameylus is not struggling and krechtzing and shvitzing. It's doing the thing no one wants or even thinks to do.

So if it were easy, ameylus would simply be sitting with your chavrusa and asking the dumb questions again. Checking to see if there is something you missed. Making sure every word in the Gemara, Rashi, and Tosafos is translated and understood in context.

Going back to fundamentals. (Thank you Mayer.)

The annoying hard truth that spells doom for any venture in Torah or otherwise when ignored.

Pshat in Rashi can sometimes hinge on a two-letter word.

You need to listen to this podcast by Rabbi Kalish. You mamesh see this in action. 24Six Spotify

If you are not careful or you’re too proud, you’ll miss it.

Unfortunately this happens too often when a pair of hotheaded youths are hashing it out in the beis.

It feels good to hock, it feels good to have it out. But that leads to burnout and confusion. So many leave the beis because there was no path, just cracking teeth.

But true ameylus is a powerful tool.

And I believe it makes learning all that more geshmak. Finding chidushim is now like finding gold when you were panning for hours and getting nothing but sand.

It’s an arduous task to slog through all the details again and again, but at least the path is clear.

Your Five-Minute Drill

You don't even need to spend a ton of time, although ideally you should spend as much time learning as possible.

You can sit in your car, take five minutes, and just challenge an assumption you had about Torah or anything.

If you learn the Daf, so often it's like a drive-thru, in and out, nothing really substantive to sink your teeth into. Ok, maybe not exactly like a drive-thru. But so much is glossed over.

Instead of letting it slip into the ether, take a concept you learned that day and mull it over on your way to work.

Ask yourself, “Why is this line true?” Then flip it: “When would it not be true?” Five minutes—that’s ameylus.

Hafach bah, v’hafach bah, challenge all your assumptions about it.

Even just a few minutes, and you are mikayim the mitzvah of ameylus.

Maybe try to think about the sugya of why you are so frustrated with Torah learning. Let yourself mull that one over a bit.

Also, ameylus.

Think about Hashem and what kind of space He takes up in your life.

Yeah, I know its a given. I almost didn’t even include this line.

And that is precisely the point.

Put that on a T-shirt and sell it.

Gadflies

This reminds me of the Socratic Method. Questioning assumptions and learning new things from those questions. It's very annoying to someone who has an ego. If you aren’t worked out in your Kup, this questioning style, this ameylus, will make you crazy.

Socrates was called the gadfly of Athens. I have no doubt Rav Shimon Shkop was just as annoying, if not more. But this is what an ameil is. And that's what learning must be hinged upon.

It's not “hard”; there is no sweat. But it will probably be the hardest thing you ever do. Whatever you learn.

No ego. Question everything. Be humble; maybe you’ll learn something you wouldn't have expected.

This is the Gibor way.

Tonight, ask three ‘dumb’ questions on the daf, or Hashkafah concept, or some other Torah you ‘know’.

Report back.