On the פסוק אם בחקתי תלכו, which means if you will go in my חוקים, in my laws, and the פסוק continues if you will do that then I will reward you ונתתי גשמיכם בעתם, I will give you the rain in its time, etc., etc. So on these words אם בחקתי תלכו, it says in Torat Kohanim brought down in Rashi, that יכול I would think that this refers to the mitzvot. והחקותי could mean mitzvot, and the Torah would be saying if you will follow my mitzvot. But the Torat Kohanim and Rashi prove that this could not refer to mitzvot, and therefore they explain that that what does the פסוק אם בחקתי תלכו mean? שתהיו עמלים בתורה, that you should toil in learning Torah, that it refers to learning Torah and it means that you should work hard at learning Torah. That's what the words אם בחקתי תלכו mean. But l'chorah you have to understand, if the פסוק refers to learning Torah, why does the פסוק choose to use the word בחקותי? The question I'm asking is not concerning why it uses a term of mitzvot when it really means Torah, that's a different question. If the Torah for some reason does want to use a term of mitzvot when it really means learning Torah, but why does it choose the word בחקותי when it refers to learning Torah? Even if it wants to use a לשון of mitzvot, there are other expressions of mitzvot other than בחקותי.

We know that mitzvot are divided into three categories: משפטים, עדות, and חוקים. And we all know that the difference between these three categories is that משפטים refer to those mitzvot that have a reason, and not only have a reason, but if the Torah wouldn't tell us to keep these mitzvot, we would keep it on our own. These are mitzvot that are self-understood with a person's שכל. Many מצוות בין אדם לחבירו, between man and man, are included in this category of משפטים. As the Gemara says, אלמלא ניתנה תורה, if the תורה wouldn't have been given, היינו למדים גזל מנמלה וצניעות מחתול, we would have learned out not to steal even from an ant, we would learn out tzniut from a cat. So these are mitzvot that if the Torah wouldn't have written these mitzvot, we would have kept them anyway. עדות refer to such mitzvot that have a reason, but if the Torah wouldn't tell us to keep these mitzvot, we wouldn't keep it on our own. But after the Torah told us to keep it, we understand why. For instance, the mitzvah of eating matzah on Pesach. If the Torah wouldn't tell us to eat matzah on Pesach, we wouldn't. But now that the Torah did tell us to eat matzah on Pesach, we know why. It is because the Yidden left Mitzrayim and they ate matzah, etc., etc. That's why these mitzvot are called עדות, because most of these mitzvot are like testimony to certain things, like matzah is a testimony for יציאת מצרים, etc., etc. Then we have the category of mitzvot which are called חוקים, mitzvot which have no reason, that we can't understand. Now here when the Torah refers to learning Torah, why does the pasuk choose the word בחקותי, חוקים, rather than using a word of משפטים or עדות? If the pasuk would be talking about keeping the mitzvot, then we would understand why the Torah uses the word בחקותי, even though it would refer to all the mitzvot, and we know that חוקים are only a small amount of mitzvot, most of the mitzvot are not חוקים, but still we would understand why the Torah chose the expression בחקותי. Because when we keep mitzvot, even those mitzvot that have a reason, we have to keep it because Hashem said so, with kabalat ol malchut shamayim, not because of the reason. Which means we have to keep even משפטים similar to חוקים. Just like when we keep חוקים, we don't keep it for any reason because it has no reason. Why do we keep the חוקים? Just because Hashem said so. As the לשון is חוקה חקקתי, גזירה גזרתי, ואין לך רשות להרהר אחריה. I made this decree, and you have no right even to think about it because it won't help you anyway. Therefore you have to keep it just because Hashem said so. So when we keep the other mitzvot, the עדות and משפטים, we have to keep it with the same kabalat ol malchut shamayim like we keep חוקים. We should keep it not because of the reason, but we should keep it because Hashem said so. And that that would explain why the Torah would choose the word בחקותי rather than משפטי or עדותי, etc., etc. But that only would be if the Torah actually would mean mitzvot.

But since the Torat Kohanim and Rashi explain that the pasuk does not mean mitzvot, the pasuk means learning Torah, now learning Torah you have to use your sechel. What's the whole idea of learning Torah? When you learn, you use your sechel, you use your head to understand what you are learning. And if this means עמלים בתורה, that you should toil hard in working, in learning Torah, what does working hard in learning Torah mean? Trying to understand it even better, looking deeper into it. So it's all concerning the sechel of the person. So being this involves the sechel, the understanding of the person, the word בחוקותי doesn't fit here. The word משפטי would fit better. If the Torah already chooses to use an expression of mitzvot, even though we're talking about learning Torah, if it would choose an expression which refers to mitzvot that have a reason, that would make more sense, because when you learn Torah, we learn the reasons of the mitzvot. What's learning Torah? Learning Torah is trying to understand what the mitzvot are, trying to understand the commandments of Hashem. That's what Torah is. But it's trying to understand, so it's using your sechel. So the Torah should have said, ואם את משפטי תלכו, or it would say, ואת עדותי תלכו. Why did the Torah choose the word בחוקותי, which refers to mitzvot that have no reason, when when you learn Torah, the whole idea is to understand the Torah that you learn? But the answer to this question is also self-understood. Even though when we learn Torah we're supposed to understand what we learn, and that the whole idea of learning Torah, learning means to understand, but we have to remember that essentially the Torah is beyond understanding. The Torah is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. The Torah is the wisdom of Hashem. Just like Hashem is בלי גבול, is unlimited, is infinite, so is his chochmah, so is his wisdom. Especially where the Rambam explains that הוא וחכמתו אחד, that Hashem and his wisdom are one. So it's not only that the Torah is the wisdom of Hashem, but the Torah is Hashem himself. So it is completely, essentially beyond the understanding of a human being. And the fact that we do understand some parts of the Torah is only because Hashem had, so to speak, rachmanut on us, pity on us, and he wanted to make it easier for us to grasp it, so he let us understand certain parts of the Torah. But essentially the Torah is completely beyond the grasp and understanding of a human being. And that's the approach a Yid is supposed to have when he learns Torah. He's supposed to keep in mind that what you're going to learn now is the chochmah of Hashem. And when a person learns that way, then the person will be mechaven to the emet. He will really understand the true peshat of the Torah. Because if he learns it with his own understanding, thinking that it's a regular chochmah like any other chochmah, then he can't really grasp the truth of the Torah, because the truth of the Torah is that it is completely beyond חכמה of a person. So when can you really grasp the emes of the חכמה? Only if you have the proper approach, understanding that this is the חכמה of Hashem, and the reason that you're able to understand is because Hashem lowered some of it and made it possible for a human being to understand. The truth is we could go a step further. The fact that a ייד לכתחילה sits down and wants to understand Torah is also מצד קבלת עול מלכות שמים. You shouldn't even try to understand knowing that this is the חכמה of Hashem, so how could even I try to understand? But since Hashem said, \"I want you to learn Torah and I want you to understand it,\" so because Hashem said so, that's why a Yid would do it. So the whole approach to Torah is really kabbalat ol. You have to know that what you do understand is only a little bit and it's only because Hashem did us a favor and let us understand a little bit, but essentially it's beyond our understanding. And also the approach to why we want to understand is also because of קבלת עול מלכות שמים, because Hashem wants us to understand. This is the way a Yid is supposed to learn Torah. And this is the idea of עמלים בתורה. עמלים בתורה means not only toiling physically, the pashut to spend a lot of time on it and try to think and understand as much as we can, but it also means that מצד the תכונת הנפש, מצד the feeling of the person should be in a form of working hard, which means the person has to work hard on himself to bring himself to understand and realize the truth of the Torah, that the Torah is not really a חכמה like any other חכמה, but the Torah really is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. And that's why when the Torah wants to tell us that we have to be עמלים בתורה, we have to haraven in learning, haraven in both ways, to learn and understand as much as we can, and also haraven, work hard with ourselves to bring ourselves to realize the truth of the Torah, the Torah specifically chooses to use the word בחוקותי, to teach us that the ענין of Torah is connected to בחוקותי, to חוקים, meaning to beyond understanding, which comes only because of קבלת עול, because of acceptance of the yoke of Hashem, because this is what it actually means. Ameilim baTorah means that we have to harveve, work hard, in bringing ourselves to have this feeling and this approach to learning Torah, and working hard while we learn that we should learn with this feeling.

This is connected to another pshat in the word בחוקותי תלכו. In Likkutei Torah, the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya explains that the word בחוקותי has another meaning also. It comes from the word חקיקה. חקיקה means carved out. What is the difference between words written on a piece of paper or words that were carved out in a stone? When you write words on a piece of paper, then the words become united with the piece of paper. First they were two separate things, there was ink and paper, and now you put the two together. But still, even after you put the two together, there are still two separate things that are united. The best proof is, you could erase the words and take it off. So even while the word is there, and it's close, as close as you can get to the paper, but still there are two things which became close and united. When you carve words out in a stone, so the words are not a separate entity of the stone, the words are made up of the stone itself. And therefore you can't even erase it. If you want to get rid of the words, you got to chop off part of the stone. But just to get rid of the words you can't, because the words and the stone are one. And this is the idea of learning Torah in the form of בחוקותי, in a form of חקיקה. When a person learns Torah, he's supposed to become one with the Torah. He is supposed to be such a great ענו, he's supposed to be battel to Hashem so much, that his whole being becomes only the Torah. Which is more even than the way it is when you write words on a piece of paper, even though there the words are also united to the paper, but it's not one. So that certainly has to be. Certainly a person can't be a separate entity when he learns Torah, if he thinks of himself as a separate metzius, and that's the way to learn Torah. That we don't even have to make sure that it doesn't happen, because that's obvious. The Gemara says in Sanhedrin דף קו עמוד ב concerning Doeg, that his learning Torah was מן השפה ולחוץ, it was from the border and outside. That certainly we don't have to make sure it doesn't happen. What the Torah is trying to tell us here, that not only must you learn Torah, that you shouldn't be a separate metzius, you should be separated from the Torah, but you בכלל have to be one with the Torah in a form just like words are carved out in the stone. And that's what the pasuk says, אם בחוקותי תלכו, and it means ameilim baTorah, that when you learn Torah and you harveve in Torah, you have to learn in such a way that you become one with the Torah.

This pshat fits to the pshat we said before, that the Torah is trying to tell us that when you learn Torah you have to realize that the truth of Torah is beyond understanding, it is really חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, because these two things get together. When does a person learn Torah that he is completely batel, his whole metziut doesn't exist, and his whole metziut, his whole being becomes the being, the metziut of the Torah, is when a person realizes that in essence the Torah is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא. When a person thinks that the Torah is a regular chochmah, and in order to understand a regular chochmah you have to use your seichel, and the more metziut you are, the better of a head you have, the more you will understand of it, so that's a metziut of the person. The more metziut of the person that's there, the better it is, the more you will understand. But if you do it that way, a person approaches it that way, then he will not be batel, and if he's not batel, he can't become one with the Torah, which means he loses his own personal metziut and his own metziut becomes the metziut of the Torah. But when a person learns Torah in a form and he knows בחוקותי, that the Torah is really בחוקותי, it's like chukim, which is beyond understanding, because the Torah is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, and all he has to do is have to do what Hashem wants with kabalat ol. The reason he wants to understand is because Hashem said so, that's all. And when he's learning, he knows in his mind that this, these are holy words, words of Hashem which are beyond understanding, just Hashem wants him to try to understand, that's why he understands. If you learn that way, then you learn in the form of חקיקה, then you will learn in a form that your metziut is completely batel and you become one with the Torah, that your whole metziut is only the metziut of the Torah. And then, and only then, will will a person be mechaven to the emet, will a person actually learn and understand the true meaning of the Torah. Because as long as he puts in his own metziut, then he only could understand the Torah as much as שכל אנושי, as much as a human brain can understand. And since the Torah is beyond human understanding, then he will not really understand the truth of the Torah. But when a person learns Torah with the proper bitul, knowing that he has to nullify himself, so to speak, in order to learn Torah, so then he is a keli to be able to be mechuvan to the emet and be able to know what the Torah really wants to tell. And then a person is able to grow and, as we say in Yiddish, to shtaig in the inyan of learning Torah. As the pasuk here says, אם בחוקותי תלכו, תלכו means to go, to continue, to travel, to grow, to go higher and higher. And if a person learns Torah in the form of בחוקותי, in the two pshatim we said before, to realize that the Torah is חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, it's like a חוקה, and at the same time he becomes because of that one with the Torah like a חקיקה, so then תלכו. Then he will be able to go and grow in the learning Torah, and he will be able to get closer to Hashem through the learning Torah, because we know that when a person in his mind understands the words of Torah properly, then he becomes united with Hashem, because as we said before, the Torah is one with Hashem. So when your brain becomes one with the Torah that you understand, the person's brain becomes one with Hashem, and automatically the whole person becomes one with Hashem. And we could imagine that when a person becomes one with Hashem, so certainly he gets all the berachot and all the inyanim that Hashem