During those weeks that we learn in the Torah about יציאת מצרים or about מתן תורה, which in essence יציאת מצרים is also part of מתן תורה, because when the Yidden went out of מצרים, the purpose was in order to receive the Torah. As the פסוק says, בהוציאך את העם הזה ממצרים תעבדון את האלקים על ההר הזה. Hashem said to Moshe Rabbeinu, when the Yidden will go out of מצרים, they will go to serve Hashem on this mountain, meaning that the purpose of יציאת מצרים is for מתן תורה. So during the weeks when we learn in the Torah, in the פרשיות of יציאת מצרים or the פרשיות of מתן תורה, it is worthwhile to discuss a little bit the mitzvah of לימוד התורה. We know that the mitzvah of learning Torah is the greatest mitzvah, as it says ותלמוד תורה כנגד כולם. Learning Torah is the most important one. So it's worthwhile to look a little bit into the importance of learning Torah, not only the way it is כפשוטו, simply, the way it's explained in halachah, and also the way it's explained in ספרי דרוש, in דרוש ספרים, also the way it's explained in ספרי מוסר, but also a little bit deeper, the way it's explained in ספרי חסידות. It says in the Gemara in Bava Kama דף י\"ז עמוד א' that אין מים אלא תורה, that water refers to Torah. The Gemara also says in Ta'anit דף ז' עמוד א' that נמשלו דברי תורה למים, that the Torah was compared to water. We also find that Torah is compared to bread, as it says in the Gemara שבת דף ק\"כ עמוד א', in Chagigah דף י\"ד עמוד א'. It's also brought down in the Tikkunei Zohar in the beginning, in תיקון ג' also, in Midrashim, for instance in Bereshit Rabbah פרשה מ\"ג ו', and in other places, that Torah is compared to bread. Now we know when the Torah compares something to something else, obviously is because the two things have something in common. So obviously there is something in the Torah which is compared to מים, and there's also something in the Torah which is compared to לחם. To understand this, we have to bring in what it says in the Shlah.

He writes in his part Asarah Maamarot, in the מאמר חקור הדין, חלק ג' פרק כ\"ו, that he says התורה מדברת בעצם בעליונים, ורומזת בשניים בתחתונים. Which means the Torah essentially speaks about things of עליונים, of higher worlds so to speak, spiritual things, and is meramez and hints בתחתונים as a second step down here. Which is more than what the Ramban says in the beginning of Bereshit, that הכתוב יגיד בתחתונים וירמוז בעליונים, that the pasuk, the Torah speaks about things of down here, of this world, but it is meramez, it hints to the way things are in the higher worlds. But the Shlah says, and obviously he's not arguing against the Ramban, he's just adding a depth to what the Ramban said, that it's not only that it's a remez to the things the way they are in the עליונים, but he says even more, the main part of the Torah, the essence of the Torah is the way it's בעליונים, and the way we have the Torah, the Torah was brought down to be meramez, to hint to certain things the way they are down here. Which means, as it's self-understood, that certainly אין מקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו. The pasuk cannot be taken away and any part of the Torah cannot be taken away from its simple peshat, as the Gemara says in שבת דף ס\"ג עמוד א'. And we can't say chas v'shalom that the Torah means only the way the things are in ruchniyut, in spiritual worlds. As is explained in the Rashba, שאלות ותשובות הרשב\"א חלק א' סימן תקט\"ז. The Torah always has the simple peshat, and that's the way we have to learn it. But in addition to the simple peshat, we have to know that essentially the Torah speaks about spiritual matters, and it is brought down into this world, put into physical matters. And that is really self-understood, because we know the Torah is Chochmato shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu. The Torah is the chochmah of Hashem. And therefore, we have to say that the way the chochmah of Hashem is, the way it's mitzad Hashem, this is completely considering ענינים רוחניים. But Hashem was malbish the Torah, put the Torah into the levush, the way it comes down into this world, the way we learn it, is in the levush of the גשמיותדיקע things.

And the truth is there is a clear מאמר חז\"ל that teaches us that. It says in Shemot Rabbah פרשה ל' ט', and also in Yerushalmi Rosh Hashanah פרק א' הלכה ג', considering the פסוק מגיד דבריו ליעקב חקיו ומשפטיו לישראל, which means that He teaches His words to יעקב, and His chukim and mishpatim to ישראל. So it says there, הקדוש ברוך הוא מה שהוא עושה הוא אומר לישראל לעשות ולשמור. That what He does, He tells us. In other words, the mitzvot and the Torah that He gave us is what He does. Now the way He does it definitely it's not in a physical way. So therefore, we must say that what we do is an extension of what he does. So essentially, the mitzvah is the way he does it, which is in a spiritual way, and it came down in a physical way. The truth is המעשה הוא העיקר. As far we're concerned, we have to do the mitzvah the way it is במעשה, in the physical action. But nevertheless, we have to remember that Hashem wants us to do it that way we have to do it, but in it is dressed essentially the spiritual part of it. The same thing is with Torah. תורה לא בשמים היא. The Torah was given down to this world, and therefore we have to learn it the way it's down here. But we have to know that within way we learn it, when we learn about the physical matters, for instance we learn about שור שנגח את הפרה, we're talking about an ox, in it essentially is hidden the spiritual explanation of the Torah, and that was being melubash, that was covered and dressed into the way we learn it. As the פסוק says in משלי, קאפיטל ח' פסוק ל', ואהיה אצלו שעשועים. The Torah is saying, \"I was the toy, so to speak, of Hashem.\" So the Torah is the way it's by Hashem. The Gemara says in שבת דף פ\"ח עמוד ב' that the Torah was called a חמודה גנוזה שגנוזה לך, that this was a hidden treasure by Hashem. So the Torah is the way it's by Hashem, which is definitely not physical. From the way it's in the spiritual way, it came down to the physical world, as it says in the pasuk in Yisro, קאפיטל כ' פסוק י\"ט, and the same is in Va'eschanan, קאפיטל ד' פסוק ל\"ו, מן השמים דברתי עמכם, מן השמים השמיעך את קולו, and then it came down to the ארץ. So it came down from the שמים to the ארץ. As it is explained in the שאלות ותשובות of the Ram"a miPano, סימן ע\"ג, there he explains what the Gemara says in Chullin דף צ' עמוד ב' that sometimes דברה תורה בלשון הבאי. The Torah speaks in words which really are not true, they're just an exaggeration, so to speak. And the Gemara says this concerning the pasuk where it says כי ערים גדולות ובצורות בשמים. It refers to the cities of Eretz Yisrael, that they are big cities and they are set up to into the שמים. So the Gemara says this is just an exaggeration, because the cities didn't go up to שמים. And he says it means כמשמעו, that they are בצורות בשמים, these cities of Eretz Yisrael are connected directly to שמים, meaning that it doesn't pass through the ע' שרים. We know the other parts of the world, each part has a שר, has a certain מלאך which is ממונה, which is appointed on that part. But the cities of Eretz Yisrael, he says, they are higher than the ע' שרים, and אין ע' שרים של מעלה, he says, נכנסים באוירה של ארץ ישראל. That in the אויר, in the air of Eretz Yisrael, this ע' שרים can't go. So these cities are בצורות בשמים. And he explains there that the word הבאי that the Gemara says is abbreviation of הנה ברכו את השם, to show that there is really nothing, no דבר בטל in the Torah, because in רוחניות everything has an explanation. But as we said, this doesn't, chas veshalom, take away from the way the Torah is by us, that we have it in a physical form, because the physical form is only the levush in which Hashem put in the essence of the Torah, which is similar to a mashal.

We know that the Torah is called משל הקדמוני. As Rashi brings in Parshas Mishpatim, משל הקדמוני means it is the mashal of the קדמונו של עולם, it is the parable, the mashal of Hashem, because the Torah, the way we have it, is a mashal which explains the real thoughts the way they are in the mind, so to speak, of Hashem. What is the concept of a mashal? Let's explain what a mashal is. There's a פסוק that says concerning Shlomo Hamelech, וידבר שלמה שלשת אלפים משל, that Shlomo spoke 3,000 mashalim. The Gemara says concerning Rabbi Meir that משמת רב מאיר, בטלו מושלי משלים, that after Rabbi Meir passed away, there were no more people that were able to give a mashal. לכאורה, what is so special about a mashal, giving a parable, that after Rabbi Meir no one could give a parable? Shlomo Hamelech said 3,000 mashalim. There were people in our generation that are also able to find interesting mashalim. If you have a good talent to it, then you're able to find a mashal to many things. So what's so special about giving a mashal? The peshat is not that Shlomo Hamelech in his lifetime gave 3,000 meshalim. So it says in sefarim, the pshat is that Shlomo Hamelech's thoughts, his ideas were so deep that in order to explain it to an ordinary person, he had to give 3,000 meshalim, and not 3,000 different meshalim, but 3,000 levels of meshalim. Sometimes there's a very deep idea that the only way you could explain it is by giving a mashal. Now sometimes the mashal itself is deep, and you have to give a mashal to that mashal, and sometimes that mashal is still too deep, and you go on and on, you give a mashal to a mashal. Shlomo Hamelech's thoughts were so deep that in order for an ordinary person to understand He would have to give 3,000 meshalim. It would have to go down 3,000 levels. Now, if a person would look in the last level and compare it to the first level, the way the thought was originally, he might say they're two different ideas. Because if it went through 3,000 stages, then definitely you can't see the connection between the last one and the first one. But the truth is, that the last stage, the lowest one, in it, it itself really is the thought of the first stage. If it wouldn't be, then we wouldn't call it a mashal, then this is not a mashal to what was said in the beginning, then this is a new idea. Being that we're not saying that this is a new idea, this is just a mashal to what's said before, the pshat is that in this mashal, really, if a person would be able to understand it, he would see that this mashal is just a way of expressing the original thought, even though when you look at it you can't see the comparison. And that's why it says concerning Rav Meir, he was able to give meshalim. It doesn't mean that just he had a talent in giving meshalim. His thoughts were so deep, as the Gemara actually says that he was the deepest of all the חכמים, ולא ירדו חכמים לסוף דעתו, the chachamim couldn't even understand the depth of his understanding, so he had to give meshalim in order to explain himself. And each thought that he had, that he said, he would have to explain it with a lower level, many, many levels in order for ordinary people to understand it. But still, in the lowest level, in essence, this is the same as the first level. And therefore, for instance, Shlomo Hamelech himself, when he looked at the lowest level of his meshalim, to him, this wasn't a cover-up on his thought, adrabah, to him the lowest level of the mashal in itself expressed the same thing as the first level, even though the outside of it, the superficial part of it looked different. And the same is with the Torah. The Torah, the way we have it, and when we learn about שור שנגח את הפרה, or we learn שנים אוחזין בטלית, whatever we learn about the physical things, this is the same thoughts the way they are in the mind of Hashem, in the רוחניות'דיקע way, but the way it is expressed to us, so we should be able to relate to it, it is put into these words, which in essence, this is the chochmah of Hashem, the expression of the same chochmah like we said concerning the mashal of Shlomo Hamelech. And the truth is, if you want to go a step further, there is no other way to explain it but to say that the essence of the Torah is רוחניות, and the way it came down to us is only an expression that we should be able to relate to, because we know that the תורה קדמה לעולם, the Torah came before the world. Now, all the physical things are all part of the world, part of the creation. If the Torah is there before the creation, so how can we say that the essence of the Torah are these physical things? If an ox was created, and the Torah came before creation, so how can the Torah talk about an ox? So we must say the Torah, everything in the Torah, every word of the Torah, essentially is in ruchniyut. It came down to us in the form of שור שנגח את הפרה, but these words, שור שנגח את הפרה, are have in it and are the same chochmah of Hashem the way they are in the spiritual sense. And this is one reason why the Torah is compared to water, as the Gemara says there in Ta'anit, that מה מים יורדים ממקום גבוה למקום נמוך, just like water goes from a high place to a low place, the Torah, too, went down from the highest place and came down to the lowest, didn't change, chas v'shalom, it's the same Torah the way it's by השם, חכמתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, just was put into this levush that we could relate to.

So from that, one can understand that when a person learns Torah, not only does he understand the sevara of the ox that gored the פרה, and the halachah is so and so, but when he understands that, he grasps actually the depth of the chochmah of Hashem the way they are on the highest spiritual levels. And this sechel that a person understands becomes one with a person. Because as we know, this is the difference between when a person understands something לגבי anything else. Anytime when a person does something or gets close to something, there still remains two things. When a person does something, there's the person who does it, but when a person understands something in his mind, the unity between the person and the thought he understands are one. That thought becomes part of his mind. Now that now that we said that when a person understands Torah, he understands the deepest spiritual inyanim, just covered up in the levush of whatever he understands, that becomes one with a person. That's why the Torah is compared to bread. Just like food becomes the person, not like a garment, which covers the person, so it is close to him, etc., etc., but it's not one with him, food becomes one with the person. And the same is with Torah. When you learn Torah, the Torah becomes one with the person. That's why the pasuk says, ותורתך בתוך מעי, Your Torah is in my stomach. Just like food goes into the stomach and becomes one with the person, so, too, does the sechel of Torah become one with the person. And being that we said that the sechel of Torah, even though it might be talking about a garment, about an ox, about anything else, really, this in itself talks about the most spiritual matters, and this becomes one with the a person, so we could imagine what happens when a person learns Torah. He becomes one with the most spiritual inyanim the way they are in the brain k'vayachol of Hashem. This is one of the explanations why תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם. Learning Torah is more important even than doing mitzvot. Because when you do a mitzvah, we know that through a mitzvah you get close to Hashem, but still the person doesn't become the mitzvah. The person does the mitzvah. But when you learn Torah, the person's brain is one with the שכל of the Torah, so the person, so to speak, becomes the Torah. And what is the Torah? As we said before, the חכמה of Hashem. And as we said before, even the way we learn the Torah, which deals with physical things, it really is the most spiritual thoughts the way they are in the חכמה of Hashem, and that's what we get united with. So therefore we understand the importance of learning Torah, that through learning Torah, we become actually one with the thoughts of Hashem, with the חכמה of Hashem, not only the way they are מלובש in this world, but also the way they are in their source, the way they are בעליונים.