There is a Medrash Tanchuma on this week’s parsha that relates the following incident. The Medrash is brought in connection with the pasuk “For I have given you a good item (lekach tov), do not forsake my Torah” [Mishlei 4:2].
There was a Torah scholar riding on a boat with many businessmen. They all had their wares with them. They asked the Torah scholar, “Where is your merchandise?” The Torah scholar responded, “My merchandise is better than yours.” They searched throughout the boat and could find nothing. They began to mock him.
Pirates attacked the boat. They robbed and plundered all that was on the boat. Everyone was left destitute. When they arrived at the port and entered the country, they were all ‘in the same boat’ – without any merchandise to sell.
The Talmid Chochom [Torah scholar] entered the Beis Medrash and began lecturing. People recognized that he was a great scholar. They treated him with honor and asked that he become their Rabbi, promising him a large salary. This Talmid Chochom was now secure. All of a sudden, the businessmen who had made fun of him on the boat asked him to put in a good word for them with the townspeople. The Talmid Chochom responded, “I told you that my ‘merchandise’ was better than your ‘merchandise’. Your goods can be lost and destroyed; but mine are preserved.”
The Medrash concludes that this is the meaning of the pasuk, “For I have given you a good item, do not forsake my Torah”. [As in the (Yiddish) song, “Torah is de beste Sechora” (Torah is the best business).]
This Medrash has a lesson for all of us. Besides all the tremendous advantages of sitting and learning, of establishing fixed times for Torah study, of the spiritual pleasure that Torah provides to people, there is one other thing about Torah that people must start considering. Everybody plans for retirement. Everyone has their IRAs and their 401K plans and pension programs, and so forth. G-d willing, there will come a day when we will not need to go to work. So what will be then? Torah is the best business.
One who wants to plan for his retirement should “get into” learning. One who is in learning will always have something. He will always have the ‘business’ of Torah. A person may become rich or poor; he may have friends or lose them. But there is one thing that he will always have — Torah! Torah can never be taken away from him!
A Jew once came to the Sefas Emes (1847-1905). He was a widower who had just lost his wife. He had been married for decades and now he complained to the Sefas Emes, “Rebbe, I’m lonely.” The Sefas Emes told him “When a Jew has a page of Talmud, he is never alone.” This is a very penetrating observation. A person can be stripped of his money, of his family, but never of his Gemara. This is the parable of the businessmen and the Talmud Chochom in the Medrash. The best wares belong to the student of Torah.
[Rabbi Frand]
