Community Magazine April 2013

and arriving at some new insight that has never before been presented. Indeed, our sages teach that scholars are called “ bonayich – builders,” because they work to build and create new ideas. Of course, this does not mean that anybody can introduce any idea that happens to cross his mind and impose it onto a Torah text. The art of hiddush must be undertaken carefully, within the framework of Torah tradition. Every science has its own rules and principles, and Torah study, too, has a set of rules that must be followed. A student once approached me and proudly presented to me his hiddush , which was clearly way off base and nowhere near the truth. I made a face expressing my disapproval, whereupon the fellow asked, “What’s wrong? Shivim panim laTorah – there are 70 interpretations to Torah!” “True,” I replied, “but what you just said is the 71 st .” Nevertheless, within the limits and boundaries of our Torah scholarly tradition there are endless ideas and insights that are waiting to be discovered. And so, indeed, each month, and in fact each week and each day, new books of Torah literature are produced, each packed with new, fresh Torah ideas that contribute to the never- ending process of “creating” Torah. In a remarkable expression of love, Gd did not just simply give us a set of books to study. He invited us to become His partners – yes, His partners! – in producing Torah. This extraordinary aspect of Torah study is expressed in the birkat haTorah blessing we recite each day, and which is recited when one receives an aliyah in the synagogue. Toward the beginning of the berachah , we praise Gd “ asher natan lanu Torat emet – who has given us a true Torah,” in the past tense. But in the berachah ’s conclusion, we recite, “ Baruch Ata Hashem noten haTorah – Blessed are You, Hashem, who gives the Torah,” in the present tense. The Taz (Rabbi David Halevi Segal, Poland, 1586-1667) explains that these two expressions refer to the two aspects of Torah. On the one hand, Gd gave us the Torah thousands of years ago at Mount Sinai. But in addition, He continuously gives us the Torah anew each day by enabling us to arrive at novel insights and ideas. The process of netinat haTorah – the giving of the Torah – thus continues each and every day. New books are constantly being produced because the process of hiddush is endless. Gd, of course, is limitless, and hence the Torah, His wisdom, is also endless. If we could somehow collect every piece of Torah literature ever written, and every novel Torah insight that has even been said, it would be comparable to less than a drop of water taken from theAtlantic Ocean. There is no end to the process of hiddush , because the Torah, like Gd, is beyond limits. On this basis, we might perhaps understand more clearly why the death of Rabbi Akiva’s students marked such a devastating loss. These were 24,000 towering scholars, the disciples of Rabbi Akiva, the man who, when Moshe Rabbenu prophetically foresaw his brilliance, he thought should be chosen to bring the Torah to the Jewish people. We cannot even imagine how many more bookshelves would be filled had these scholars survived. The plague that ravaged Rabbi Akiva’s Dedicated inmemory of   Sarah  bat LucetteKishik  20 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE