In Parshas Chayei Sarah, the Torah tells us the whole story of how Eliezer was sent by Avraham to find a wife for Yitzchak, and the Torah tells us all the details of what happened and how he found Rivkah, and then the Torah repeats the whole story again when Eliezer told it over to Besuel and Lavan. And Rashi says there in קפיטל כ\"ד פסוק מ\"ב that יפה שיחתן של עבדי אבות, then Rashi continues מתורתן של בנים, which means that here we see that the שיחתן, which means the speech, the words of the slaves of the Avot is greater, better, than the Torah of the children. Because we see that הרבה גופי תורה לא ניתנו אלא ברמיזה, many very major, important things of the Torah were only given through a hint, sometimes through one extra letter, a ו' for instance, we learn out many, many halachot, and nevertheless the Torah goes into the details of the sichah, of the speech, of the talking of Eliezer who was from the עבדים of the Avot. So from here we see that יפה שיחתן של עבדי אבות מתורתן של בנים, that the speech of the עבדי אבות is greater, is better than the Torah of the בנים. But Lechorah, we have to understand what is the pshat. How can we say that sichah, which is plain talk so to speak, should be greater than Torah? Even though it is sichah of עבדי אבות, but nevertheless it is only sichah, and sichah just means plain talk, which is not Torah. Now how is it possible that plain talk should be greater than Torah? And the truth is that when we say here greater than Torah, we don't only mean greater than the Torah the way it was before Matan Torah, but we mean greater than the Torah of the בנים the way it is after Matan Torah. Because we see that the example given is that we see that many halachot were only written ברמיזה, only hinted, while the story of the עבדי אבות is written in detail twice, so we see that we're referring to the Torah the way it is after Matan Torah. And nevertheless we say that the sichah, the just plain talk of the עבדי אבות is greater than the Torah of the בנים.

The truth is that even the Torah of before Matan Torah is not the same as the Torah after Matan Torah, as it says in Midrash Shir HaShirim Rabbah, פרשה א' ג', that כל השירות שאמרו לפניך האבות ריחות היו, that all the שירים that the Avos said to you, which means the Torah that they learned was only like a smell, but we have the essence of the Torah. So even the Torah that was learned by the Avos is not the same at all, no comparison to the Torah that Hashem' gave to the בנים later on. Certainly the sichah of before Matan Torah, the just plain talk of the עבדי אבות certainly doesn't compare to the Torah. So how can we say that יפה שיחתן של עבדי אבות מתורתן של בנים? And the question becomes even stronger if we're going to be medayek in the exact expression of this מאמר חז\"ל. The lashon is that the שיחתן של עבדי אבות is better מתורתן של בנים, from the their Torah of the בנים. It doesn't say מהתורה של הבנים, but מתורתן של בנים, which means their Torah. We find in the Gemara in Kiddushin דף ל\"ב עמוד ב' and also in Avodah Zarah דף י\"ט עמוד א', that there are two stages in learning Torah. There is a time when the Torah is called Torat Hashem', Hashem's Torah, and then there is a time when it is called Torah, his Torah. Which means in the beginning when the person just starts learning the Torah, the Torah is still called תורת ה', Hashem's Torah, but when he starts learning and the Torah becomes one with him, then the Torah is called Torah, it is his Torah, till he even becomes a baal habayis so to speak over the Torah. This is the highest level a person could reach in learning Torah, that not only is he a separate being and the Torah a separate being, the Torah is Hashem's, and he learns Hashem's Torah, but the highest level is if the Torah becomes part of him, it is so to speak his Torah, his whole being is the Torah. Here since the expression is מתורתן של בנים, so it comes out that we're saying that there is a maalah in the speech of the עבדי אבות even in their Torah of the banim, which means even in the level the way the banim, the Yidden, learn Torah and become united with the Torah, still there is a maalah in the sichah, in the talk of the עבדי אבות. And the question is, how can we say that there is a maalah in the sichah of the עבדי אבות over the Torah of the banim?

To understand this, we first have to bring in what the Gemara says in Sanhedrin דף צ\"ט עמוד ב'. There the Gemara says אמר רבי אלעזר: כל אדם לעמל נברא. Every person was born, was created to toil, to work hard, שנאמר שנאמר, as the pasuk says in Iyov: כי אדם לעמל יולד. A person was born to toil, to work hard. And then the Gemara continues: איני יודע אם לעמל פה נברא, אם לעמל מלאכה נברא. I don't know if he was created for toiling of the mouth or toiling of work. כשהוא אומר, when he brings a pasuk where it says, כי אכף עליו פיהו, הוי אומר לעמל פה נברא. From this pasuk where it mentions the word פיהו, which is the mouth, so we understand that a person was created to toil by mouth. ועדיין איני יודע, I still don't know, אם לעמל תורה, אם לעמל שיחה. Was a person created to toil to learn Torah or he was created to toil in speech? כשהוא אומר, but when the pasuk says לא ימוש ספר התורה הזה מפיך, that this sefer Torah should not stay away from your mouth, הוי אומר, so from here we know that לעמל תורה נברא. The person was created to toil in learning Torah. So we see here in the Gemara that there was a hava amina, there was a sevara to say that the person was created לעמל שיחה, to toil in speech, in talking. Now this is not understood. How was there a hava amina? How would we lechatchila think that the person was created to talk rather than to learn Torah? It's self-understood that the whole purpose of a person's being in the world is to learn Torah, so why would we think that there is a maalah, there is something better in sichah, in just talk, over the inyan of learning Torah?

So the Tzemach Tzedek in his Sefer Or HaTorah explains that the Gemara does not mean עמל שיחה, plain talk, devarim beteilim or things like that, chas veshalom. But what does the word sichah means when you talk things which are not Torah, but it is spoken l'shem shamayim. It is spoken for the sake of Hashem, for the sake of mitzvot, but the talk itself is not the inyan of Torah. Which is connected to another place where we find the expression of sichah, and that is in the Gemara Avodah Zarah דף י״ט עמוד ב׳, that שיחת חולין של תלמידי חכמים צריכים לימוד. That the שיחת חולין, the simple secular talk of talmidei chachamim also has to be learned. So there too we find an expression sichah, and there we use the expression שיחת חולין, their talk of חולין, secular talk, simple talk. But nevertheless, since it is שיחת חולין of תלמידי חכמים, you have to learn that too, because the שיחת חולין of תלמידי חכמים is also l'shem Shamayim, and it also is in order to serve Hashem, even though it is not שיחה of Torah, it is not talking of Torah. But nevertheless, it is definitely l'shem Shamayim. And this is connected to what it says in פרקי אבות פרק ב׳ משנה י״ב: וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, that whatever you do should be l'shem Shamayim. And there, it doesn't mean that you should do mitzvot, because that is not called מעשיך, that is not your maasim. The mitzvot are the maasim of Hashem. When it says וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, it means your own maasim. When a person does his own thing, so to speak, when a person eats, which is his own maaseh, something that he does that is not a mitzvah, it is a secular thing, so to speak, or when he goes to work, or he does the other thing that he does because of his physical needs, nevertheless the Mishnah says וכל מעשיך יהיו לשם שמים, they should all be l'shem Shamayim. Which is also the idea of what it says in the pasuk in משלי, קפיטל ג׳ פסוק ו׳: בכל דרכיך דעהו, in all your ways you should know Him. And here too it is not talking about mitzvot, because the mitzvot are not called דרכיך, your ways, they are called דרכי השם, the ways of Hashem. When it says בכל דרכיך, know your ways, it refers to the things a person does not because they are mitzvot, but he does them because he, as a human being, needs to do it. They are his ways. Nevertheless, בכל דרכיך דעהו, in all your ways you have to know Him. And this is the pshat in the Gemara in Sanhedrin, when the Gemara says that there is a hava amina that אדם לעמל יולד means that a person was born for עמל שיחה, to toil in speech. It means the שיחת חולין which is l'shem Shamayim, that he should speak and get involved in secular things l'shem Shamayim, because it is a great avodah to serve Hashem l'shem Shamayim even when you are not doing mitzvot. So the hava amina in the Gemara is that maybe this is the most important thing, the inyan of עמל שיחה, the שיחת חולין of תלמידי חכמים, the inyan of doing your own thing l'shem Shamayim. But the question is, why would we think that this is greater than Torah? Why would we think that a person was created for that rather than Torah? Because lichorah, as great as כל מעשיך לשם שמים and בכל דרכיך דעהו is, certainly it doesn't come to the inyan of learning Torah, because learning Torah is a commandment of Hashem, Torah is the chochmah of Hashem. So why would we think that שיחה לשם שמים, which really includes the whole concept of מעשיך לשם שמים, should be greater than the inyan of learning Torah?

So the Tzemach Tzedek explains that we find an expression in the Zohar חלק ג' דף קמ\"ט עמוד ב' when it refers to the creation of the world by Hashem as מילין דהדיוטא, secular simple things, because concerning Hashem the creation of the world is מילין דהדיוטא. So מילין דהדיוטא is similar to the inyan of שיחת חולין, because הדיוט means simple things, שיחת חולין also means they're secular things, they're not important things. We also find a connection between the creation of the world and the inyan of speech, because we know that בעשרה מאמרות נברא העולם, that Hashem created the world with the ten statements, with the ten sayings. So it was שיחה, it was speech of Hashem that created the world. We say in the piyutim on ראש השנה, יום כיפור, הוא שח ויהי, he spoke and it became. This refers to the creation of the world. So there we use the term שח, which is from the same word of שיחה. So we see a connection between Hashem's creating the world through the עשרה מאמרות, through the speaking, which is considered מילין דהדיוטא, to the inyan of שיחת חולין of a person. Now we know that in order for Hashem to recreate the world every second, because the truth is Hashem did not just create the world once and then the world continues to exist by itself chas veshalom, but המחדש בטובו בכל יום תמיד מעשה בראשית, השם renews the creation everyday, and the truth is not everyday, but every moment, every second, constantly Hashem recreates the world. Now we know that in order for the different things to happen above by Hashem, it depends on our avodah, it depends what we do down here. As there's the famous pshat of the Mezritcher Maggid, which is printed in his Sefer Or Torah דף קי\"ב עמוד ב', on the Mishnah where it says in פרקי אבות in the second פרק, משנה א', דע מה למעלה ממך, you should know what's above you. So he explained that it means, דע, you should know, that מה למעלה, that what happens above, ממך, it comes from you, that what we do down here, that has an effect by Hashem, and that causes Hashem to do the different things. Not because חס ושלום השם couldn't do them, but the way Hashem created the world is that everything should depend on עבודת האדם, everything should depend on the people. And therefore we are told about certain things that in order to be meorer, to awaken so to speak l'ma'alah by Hashem certain things, we have to do down here things which are similar, and when we do that, this awakens the same thing above, using the terms of Kabbalah, that when we have an אתערותא דלתתא, an awakening down here, so this is meorer, this awakens an אתערותא דלעילא, an awakening from above, that the similar thing to what we did down here will happen from above. And we know that, taken also from the Gemara, that Hashem acts with us midah keneged midah, measure for measure. So when we do something, so Hashem from above will do a similar thing. For instance, if we want Hashem to act to us in a form of tzedakah, we know that we don't deserve all the things we want Hashem to give us, but we want him to give it to us in a form of tzedakah, in order to be meorer that, we have to do the mitzvah of tzedakah down here. When we show Hashem that we also give to somebody who so to speak might not deserve, so Hashem too will do the same thing to us. And the same is with everything, that in order to be meorer the same the thing above, we have to do something similar. So there must be something similar to the inyan of the עשרה מאמרות of Hashem, which is the sichah, the speech of מילין דהדיוטא, the speech concerning the secular simple things by Hashem, so there's something that we have to do in עבודת השם, in our service of Hashem, that will be similar to that, that will awaken by Hashem, that he will also say the sichah of the עשרה מאמרות in order to create the world, which is מילין דהדיוטא. And what is that? That is the שיחת חולין. When we have the simple speech not of Torah, but שיחת חולין, but that is done l'shem Shamayim, it is done for the sake of Hashem, so then this is meorer, there should be the שיחת חולין, so to speak, the speech of the מילין דהדיוטא by Hashem to create the world. Which means that when we learn Torah, which is the chochmah of Hashem, it is not שיחת חולין חס ושלום, it is not מילין דהדיוטא חס ושלום, it is not simple, ordinary, secular things, so by doing that, we bring down into the world a much higher level of kedushah. We bring down into the world a light, so to speak, which is beyond the creation, which is so to speak, the אור חדש, a new light which is beyond the creation of the world. But first we have to do something that Hashem will make the creation of the world, speak the שיחת חולין, and then we're able to bring a higher level of light into the world, which is from a level deeper within Hashem, not just the inyan of שיחת חולין.

And this is what the Gemara meant. The hava amina of the Gemara is maybe the person was created for עמל שיחה, which means to speak שיחת חולין לשם שמים. And this is a hava amina that this is the whole purpose of the person, because when you do this l'shem Shamayim, this brings about that Hashem will recreate the world. The maskana of the Gemara is that this is not so, the purpose is עמל תורה. But it doesn't mean that it takes away from the hava amina. The hava amina remains. The question was which of the two is more important. The maskana is that more important is the Torah, because the most important thing is to bring the higher level of light of kedushah into the world. But nevertheless, it also remains that the עמל שיחה is also important, because this is what makes Hashem recreate the world. And this is what Rashi could mean when he says יפה שיחתן של עבדי אבות מתורתן של בנים, that there is a maalah in שיחתן של עבדי אבות. There's a maalah in sichah, just like by Eliezer. He spoke ordinary, secular things. There was a story there concerning finding a shidduch, etc., etc. But he did this leshem Shamayim. It was for the sake of Hashem, it was for the sake of his master Avraham, who wanted to do this because this was the thing Hashem wanted him to do. So his sichah there was leshem Shamayim. So there is a maalah in the sichah leshem Shamayim even over Torah, because this continues the creation of the world. On the other hand, Torah is greater, Torah's more important, but nevertheless, there is a maalah also in the inyan of sichah. But the condition is that you have to be עבדי אבות, you have to feel yourself like an eved. Just like Eliezer was an eved of Avraham, and he felt himself as an eved of Avraham. As he started, when he started speaking to Betuel and Lavan, he said עבד אברהם אנכי. That's his whole being, that he was an eved of Avraham. And Avraham was the tzaddik, which means Avraham's whole metziut was only kedushah. So he was an eved of kedushah. So when a person is an eved, an eved of Hashem, so then the person is able to speak the sichah leshem Shamayim, and that sichah, which is done l'shem Shamayim, being an eved of Hashem, brings about that Hashem recreates the world. And therefore, it says יפה שיחתן של עבדי אבות מתורתן של בנים, that there is a maalah in the sichah of עבדי אבות over the Torah of בנים. It doesn't mean that it's greater in everything. There is a specific maalah in it, and the maalah is that this brings about the creation of the world, while Torah brings a new light into the world. So definitely, Torah is much greater than that, but what we're trying to say here is that there is also a maalah in the sichah of עבדי אבות over תורתן של בנים, which means there's a maalah in כל מעשיך לשם שמים ובכל דרכיך דעהו.