The pasuk at the beginning of Parshas Bechukosai says: “If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and do them” (Vayikra 26:3). Rashi explains that “Im b’chukosai teilechu” (If you walk in my statutes) cannot be referring to Mitzvah observance in general because that is mentioned elsewhere in this pasuk. Rashi says that the expression means “she’ti’heyu ameilim b’Torah” (that you should be diligent in your study of Torah).
This seems to be a very strange drasha. The word chok and the phrase “ameilus b’Torah” do not seem to be related. Chukim are thosemitzvoswhich, at first glance, seem to have no rhyme or reason. Shatnez is a chok. Why can’t a garment contain wool and linen together? The Ribono shel Olam knows. He has His reasons. We accept that. The ultimate chok, the paradigm of all chukim, is Parah Adumah (the Red Heifer). There is no sense to this law—at least to us human beings. The prohibition of eating pig is a chok. The laws of Kashrus are chukim. On the other hand, ameilus b’Torah is diligently pursuing the understanding of Torah. It is an intellectual pursuit requiring intense mental effort. Learning and understanding Torah is not a chok. Why do Chazal and Rashi define b’chukosai teileichu as ameilus b’Torah?
Rav Simcha Zissel gives the following answer in hisseferon Chumash: When the Torah refers to ameilus b’Torah being a chok, it is referring to the transformative properties of Torah. Learning Torah does something to a person. Torah learned properly changes the person. He becomes a different person. There is no other academic discipline that has this property. If a person is “amel in Physics” or “amel in Economics,” it does not change the nature of the person. Even if someone is an “amel in Philosophy,” it still does not affect his nature. To wit, there were great philosophers, who, on a personal level, left much to be desired.
When Chazal say that “you should be ameilim b’Torah” here, they are referring to this mystical power of Torah to change people. The pasuk is referring to that “chok.” If that is the case, then merely quickly “learning up” a blatt Gemara or merely being ma’aver sedra and reading the Targum without knowing what you are saying is a fulfillment of the Biblical Mitzvah of learning Torah – I am not denying that – but the power of Torah to transform the person requires a different level of learning. That is amelus b’Torah. That is shvitzing over a Daf of Gemara. That is sweating hard to understand a Tosfos.
That is why, for instance, Rav Chaim of Volozhin writes in his sefer Safre De’tzneusa, as follows: “I heard from the mouth of the holy Gaon of Vilna that many times malachim (angels) came to his doorway to offer to freely transmit to him the secrets of Torah, without any effort or intensive study on his part at all. However, he refused to listen to them.” The Gaon said “no thanks” to these malachim who were anxious to share Torah secrets with him without his having to expend any effort to acquire this knowledge.
If a malach came to me one night and wanted to share “Torah secrets” with me, I would tell him “Be my guest!” But the Gaon, who was the personification of a Torah genius, wanted to have the ameilus b’Torah. He refused to accept a “free pass” to the acquisition of Torah knowledge. That is what makes a person different.
The Taz says in Shulchan Aruch that thebrachawe recite every morning before learning Torah is “… asher kidishanu b’mitzvosav v’tzivanu LA’ASOK b’Divrei Torah.” La’asok means to be diligently involved or engrossed. The more common language would be “LILMOD (to learn) Torah.” The Taz explains the connotation of the word La’Asok. Chazal really want us to put effort – blood, sweat, and tears – into our Torah study endeavors. Only then will the Torah student experience the mystical power of Torah to transform him. This is the interpretation of Im b’chukosai teleichu – she’ti’heyu AMEILIM b’Torah.
