A vort from the Rebbe on this week's parsha, Parshas Ki Sisa. In Parshas Ki Sisa, we learn about the Yidden making the עגל and then Moshe Rabbeinu broke the לוחות that Hashem gave him to take down to the Yidden when he saw the עגל. And then the parsha tells us Hashem told him to prepare new לוחות and the Eibershter wrote on the לוחות the עשרת הדברות. And then we learn in the Chazal that לוחות ושברי לוחות מונחים בארון, that in the ארון, when the Eibershter told the Yidden to make an ארון by the משכן, he told him to put in the לוחות, the second לוחות, and also the broken לוחות to go into the ארון. And the question is: Why is it important to have the broken לוחות? They were broken. The new ones, the second ones, they are the ones that were given, and they stayed complete, they should be in the ארון. What is the reason that the Eibershter wanted that the broken לוחות should also be in the ארון? So there are all kinds of reasons given in the sefarim.

So the Rebbe explains it like this: The לוחות, the ארון represents a Yid who contains Torah. The ארון בכלל represents Torah, because you have the לוחות in it that represents Torah. So the לוחות is the כלי in which the Torah was. So the fact that the לוחות and the broken לוחות were in the ארון, that shows us how the approach to לימוד התורה, to learning Torah has to be. On one hand, you have to learn like the לוחות. The לוחות are the stones in which the Torah was carved out. We know from other places that there's a big difference between words written on parchment or on a piece of paper versus words carved out in stone. Words carved out in stone means that the words are not a separate entity from the stone in which it's carved out. When you write something with ink on a piece of paper, then even though they're very close, the words are written on the paper, but nevertheless you have two things here, two entities: you have the entity of the ink, you have the entity which makes up the words, and then you have the entity of the paper. They're very close, but they're still two entities that got close. The best proof is you could erase the ink and then you won't have the words there anymore. While words that are carved out in stone, they're carved out, they become part of the stone. The only way to get rid of it, you can break the stone, but the words themselves were carved out into the stone, they're one with the stone. So that's the first thing that teaches a Yid that when it comes to learn Torah, you have to learn in such a way that it becomes one with you. How does it become one with you? One of the things is you have to try to understand to your best of your ability. When you understand, sink in your seichel, it says in Tanya, then you become מיוחד with the thing you understand. So if you understand Torah, so your brain becomes the Torah, then you become very מיוחד, you become one with the Torah. So you really have to use your brains and try to understand to the best of your ability. That's the way you get united with the Torah.

On the other hand, if you base everything only on your understanding, then you're only getting the seichel of the Torah. What we need is the kedushah of the Torah, the holiness of the Torah. And that only comes through bitul, through a person understanding that what he really understood in the Torah is not the real, that's just a drop in the bucket, that's just the top of the iceberg, as they say, that's just the outer layer. There's much more that you don't understand, because it's beli gvul, the Torah is beli gvul, it's beyond any limitations. So you have to be broken, so to speak, from feeling that you don't really understand the truth, and then you are a kli to get the best of Torah and connect yourself to what the Torah really is. Like you say in Shemoneh Esrei, at the end of שמונה עשרה, ונפשי כעפר לכל תהיה פתח לבי בתורתך, \"I am like dust to everyone, open my heart to Torah.\" What's the connection? Because in order to open the heart to Torah, not only the mind to understand what you understand, but to open the heart to go to the depth of Torah, to the kedushah of Torah, that you have to have bitul, and you have to realize that your understanding is not the real thing, אלא you still do have to understand it to the best of your ability, but you always have to keep in mind there are more, then, first of all, you'll understand more, you'll get more hatzlachah in understanding, and you connect yourself to the beli gvul, the infinity of Torah. And that's why the Eibershter said that inside the ארון, which represent the Yid which contains the Torah, so it has to be two things: you have to have the לוחות there, shows you how you have to learn Torah, you have to understand it, because you have to become one with the Torah, which comes through understanding, and at the same time, you have to have the שברי לוחות, the broken לוחות, you have to feel that whatever understanding you have, there's much more to it, and when you're מבטל your שכל, not that you don't understand, you realize that there's much more beyond than you stand, then you really are a כלי to the truth of Torah. And that's the deeper reason why in the ארון you had the לוחות and the שברי לוחות. The לוחות and the broken לוחות were in the ארון. לוחות ושברי לוחות מונחים בארון, because the broken לוחות represent