Parshas Haazinu/Yom Hakippurim

“My teaching should like soft rain, My pronouncements flow like dew.”
(Devarim 32:2)

”My teaching . . .” this refers to the Torah which I have given to Israel. Like rain, which is life for the world, so, too, Torah is life for the world . . . “my pronouncements flow like dew” -- in that everyone is pleased with it’ (Rashi)

Torah is compared to rain in the sense that Torah cannot work on an individual in a vacuum. That is, just like rain cannot produce anything if their is no seed or kernal upon which is can work its nourishing force, so, too, with the Torah. Only if there exists a “kernal” in the heart of the person, the inner desire for spirituality, can the Torah be effective to bring it to fruition. Only after the individual prepares himself, then can the Torah bring forth his growth. Indeed, without this initial effort by man, the situation is that described by Solomon in his wisdom: “What is this-- the purchase price in the hand of the fool who wishes to acquire wisdom, one who has no heart!” (Mishlei 17: 16)

As Rashi explains, this “dew” is one which everyone is pleased to enjoy. Normally, rain, dew, gets in the way, soiling the otherwise dry surface. It would be much better, more convenient, “cleaner”, so to speak, if the fruits could grow without it. How much more wonderful, then, is the Torah, in which everyone recognizes its miraculous growing power, and with which everyone can revel in the pleasure of its learning, a pleasure which enhances every aspect of one’s life.

The gemora tells us, “one’s initial judgement is upon the Torah he (or she) has learned” (Sanhedrin 7a). During these Yomim Noraim, how important then, to reaffirm our recognition of the inestimateable value of our most prized possession-- our Torah!

(This d'var Torah is based on the work Peninei Daas, the essays of the Telsher Rosh HaYeshiva Rabbi Eliyahu Meir Bloch, zt"l, edited by Rabbi Noson Tzvi Baron, shlit"a, and Rabbi Avrahom Chaim Levin, shlit"a, vol. 2, p. 198)