Question:
Many people learn Gemara in-depth but they don’t come to feel the closeness with Hashem that are described in the Bilvavi sefarim.Answer:
It is because those people only have Torah in their life, and no Avodas Hashem. Torah without Avodas Hashem doesn’t lead to success, and neither does Avodas Hashem without Torah. We need both – we need both our “father” and our “mother”.
Is there anyone who has an easy time making a living? Well, why should Torah and Avodas Hashem come any easier to you? The Alter of Novhardok once said that if a person would try to establish a Yeshivah as much as when he tries to set up a living, he would be able to build 100 yeshivos. (He himself built many yeshivos.)
Torah and Avodas Hashem doesn’t come easy. But life is not easy. We have free will in how we will live our life and how we will use our energies. There is no such thing as anything successful that was easy. If a person uses his energies entirely for parnassah, he’ll be wiped out by the time he opens up his Gemara. Not just with regards to having time for learning; he has used up all his soul’s energies when it comes to work, so he won’t be able to learn Torah properly.
But if one changes his perspective and decides that he will mainly channels his energies towards learning, he will be able to exert himself properly in Torah. Man has the power to choose between a life that contains real vitality to it, or to live a “dead” kind of life; it is written, “I have placed before you life and death, and you shall choose life.”
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