second seder of this week's parsha, it starts off with the words אם בחוקותי תלכו, if you will go in my חוקים. And Rashi says it doesn't mean doing mitzvot, what does it mean? שתהיו עמלים בתורה, that means that you should toil, work hard in learning Torah. So the Rebbe asks a שאלה: We know that in mitzvot we have three categories: חוקים, עדות, and משפטים. חוקים are those mitzvot that have no reason, עדות are those mitzvot that have a reason, but if the Torah wouldn't tell us to do it, we wouldn't do it, like Shabbos. We know why we keep Shabbos, because Hashem created the world in six days, etc., but if the Torah wouldn't tell us, we wouldn't do it. But now that the Torah told us, we have a reason. And משפטים are those mitzvot that we understand on our own, even if the Torah would not tell us to do these דינים, these mitzvot, we would still do it. So חוקים refers to those mitzvot that don't make any sense in our logical, normal, natural שכל. So the Rebbe asks a question: If the Torah wants to tell us to learn Torah, why does it use the word בחוקותי for that? חוקים are complete opposite of learning Torah. When you learn Torah, the whole point is that you have to understand what you're learning, especially by Torah Shebaal Peh, you have to understand what you're learning. If you don't understand, you're not יוצא the mitzvah. So you have to understand. חוקים refers to those mitzvot that we do not understand at all. So why would the Torah refer to learning Torah with the word חוקים, אם בחוקותי תלכו? And the

Rebbe explains it based on what the Alter Rebbe says, that the word בחוקותי has another meaning: besides the meaning of chukim, mitzvot which are in the category of chukim, it also has a meaning from the word חקיקה, which means carved out. חקיקה means words, letters which are carved out in stone. The difference between words, letters which are carved out in stone versus words which are written on parchment or on a piece of paper is: words that are written on a piece of paper or on a piece of parchment are a separate entity than the parchment, the paper. They get very close, but you're taking ink, which is not part of the paper, and you're writing words, letters on the paper. You put them together, now it becomes very close, connected, part of the paper, but it's not be'etzem part of the paper. The words are separate, and the paper is separate, and you just put them together. Words that are carved out in stone are really no separate entity. It is the stone itself. The words are made up of the stone. And that's what the pasuk is trying to tell us. Torah is talking about learning Torah, but the pasuk wants us to learn Torah in a form similar to חקיקה, similar to being carved out, that when you learn Torah, you have to learn Torah in a way that you become one with the Torah. The Torah becomes your whole מציאות. The Torah becomes your whole being. You're not a separate entity. And

that's why the Torah picks to use the word בחוקותי, which seems to be from the word of chukim, to teach us that it means Torah, but Torah in the form of חקיקה, that you have to learn to become one with the Torah like the ענין of חקיקה, that the words, the letters are part of the stone. But then we also know that when you have more than one interpretation in a word, even though they seem to be separate interpretations, they must have a connection. So since the word בחוקותי does normally refer to chukim, so that's the simple meaning of the word, it must have a connection to what we're saying, that the word בחוקותי also means חקיקה, that you have to learn in the form of a חקיקה, like words which are carved out in the stone. And the Rebbe says, sure they're connected. Chukim are mitzvot, as we said, that you can't understand. So why does a person do the chukim? Only with kabbalat ol malchut shamayim, because you accept upon yourself the yoke of Hashem, and Hashem wants you to do it. See, when you do משפטים, sometimes you do it because they make sense! So you do it because your logic dictates you to do it. Even עדות makes sense. So it's not necessarily that you will do it out of kabbalat ol. Chukim, there is no other way to do it. Chukim, you certainly only do kabbalat ol, because you know that Hashem said so, and that's it, there's no other reason. So what the pasuk is trying to tell us, that when you learn Torah, you have to learn with a קבלת עול מלכות שמים, accepting the yoke of Hashem. And that's the connection between that and the word בחוקותי meaning חקיקה, carved out. If you

learn Torah because it makes sense, and you don't do it out of קבלת עול, some people learn Torah like that. It's a very deep חכמה, a deep סברא, deep knowledge. Everyone agrees to that, the pasuk says that even גוים agree to that, כי היא חכמתכם ובינתכם לעיני העמים, the pasuk says, it's your שכל, your חכמה and בינה in the eyes even of the גוים, of the nations. So some people learn it because it's a very deep חכמה, very interesting חכמה. If you learn like that, you will not become one with the Torah, because your own ego and your own entity is involved. I like this, so I learn this. When will you be able to learn and become one with the Torah, that your whole מציאות will only be the Torah, is if you learn with קבלת עול. That means if you learn with קבלת, because Hashem said so, even if the whole idea of Torah is to understand the Torah, but the question is why do you understand, why do you want to understand the Torah? So there are two ways: you can, why I understand the Torah? Because I should, it's something that makes sense, I try to understand. And then there's another way: because Hashem wants you to understand the Torah. Hashem told us to learn Torah and told us to learn it and to understand it. So the understanding of the Torah comes also because of קבלת עול. Then you become one with the Torah, and that's the connection between these two פשטים. The Torah wants you to learn Torah in the form that you become one with it, that's the פשט of חקיקה, but it also tells you בחוקותי, uses the word חוקה, when could that happen? If you learn with קבלת עול. If you don't have the קבלת עול, and you learn Torah because you have a geshmak in it, you have an interest in it, you enjoy it, which everyone should, but why should you like it or why should you enjoy it? Because the Eibershter said. And if you do it for that reason, then it's not you at all, there's no involvement of the person himself, it's all because Hashem said so. And then you become one with the Torah, and that's the connection between these two peshatim. And we

have to remember that if you come one with the Torah, it's not only one with the Torah, it's one with the Eibershter, one with Hashem, because the Torah and Hashem are one. Like the Rambam says that the Torah is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, it's the wisdom of Hashem, and הוא וחכמתו אחד, and He and His chochmah is one. So when you become one with the Torah, you become one with Hashem. And that's really what the pasuk is telling us, אם בחוקותי תלכו, that means you have the inyan of chukim. You learn, this means Torah, but you have it in the form, you learn it in the form of kabbalat ol like chukim, and you become one with the Torah, that's the greatest thing a person could do, you become one with Hashem. And if we become one with Hashem, this definitely hastens the coming of Mashiach, let him come במהרה בימינו בקרוב ממש.