Devotion to Torah Learning - 005 Yissocher, Yehudah and Dan: Within The Soul

The Mesirus Nefesh of Moshe For The Torah – And In Our Own Souls

When the souls of the people flew out of their bodies by Har Sinai, all of the souls joined with their root, in the Torah.

In order to reach this place (in our own souls), one needs to join his soul with the collective aspect of the Torah. The Torah is called “Toras Moshe” because Moshe represents the collected state of all the words of Torah. Moshe received the Torah on a general level, and in its details. The general level of Torah includes all of the details at once. Moshe received all the details of each person’s Torah together, whereas every other person receives his own particular detail in the Torah.

Noach davened for his generation, and Avraham davened even to save the people of Sodom. Higher than this level of devotion was Moshe, who had mesirus nefesh for the entire Jewish people. Moshe wanted to be erased if Hashem wouldn’t forgive the people for the sin with the golden calf. Moshe’s main level is called daas, yet he was willing to give over his daas to Hashem, by getting himself erased himself from the Torah, so he was giving up his very essence. That was Moshe’s mesirus nefesh.

Moshe also gave us the Torah with mesirus nefesh. He was blessed with a “good eye” and could teach the entire people the Torah, because he had mesirus nefesh for the people, when he ascended to Heaven for 40 days and didn’t eat and drink. This was because he had mesirus nefesh for the Torah. He descended from the mountain to give the Torah to the people because he had mesirus nefesh for the Torah, to bring the Torah down above to below. Hashem wanted the Torah to remain above and Moshe held onto the Luchos to bring it down to below, and this because he had mesirus nefesh for the Torah, to bring it down below to us.

Just as Moshe ascended to Heaven with mesirus nefesh, in order to get the Torah, so do we have an avodah to have mesirus nefesh for the Torah, and to bring it down to this earth. The Torah requires mesirus nefesh.

The Gemara says that the Torah is not inherited by children who come from a Torah scholar, for three generations, and this is because the Torah requires mesirus nefesh. A father teaches Torah to his son only out of mesirus nefesh for the Torah.

Each Person Has A Unique Part In Torah Which Cannot Be Taught To Others

However, the child’s Torah is not the same letter of the Torah which the father has. The external level of teaching Torah to a son is to teach him Chumash, Mishnayos, and the Gemara, which includes Talmud Bavli. But a father cannot teach the son his “individual” part of Torah. Each person has to reach his own personal root in the Torah – on his own.

A rebbi can teach talmidim, and a father can teach his son, but they can only teach to the external level of the Torah to the child. All they teach show the child is the beginning of a path to take, but they cannot show them the entire path. Therefore, a rebbi or a father cannot force a child to learn the part of the Torah just because the father or rebbi excels in that part of Torah, which his personal share in Torah. It would be like mixing together shaatnez or kilayim (forbidden mixtures). The child has a different personal part of Torah, which will differ from his father’s or his Rebbi’s personal share in Torah, and it cannot be mixed with another’s personal part of Torah.

The Soul’s Powers of Dan, Yehudah, and Yissocher – Three Different Abilities of Torah Learning

To apply this concept practically, though, when one is learning Torah with others, one needs to first learn the parts of Torah even when those part of his Torah are not of his personal share in Torah.

This is also called the power of “Dan” in the soul, because Dan is “me’asef kol hamachanos”, he “gathers together all the camps”, which refers to a power in Torah learning to gather and combine together all the parts of Torah, even the parts that aren’t uniquely his own portion. This attaches one to the “general” level of the Torah, which is all-inclusive of all details to the Torah.

In the soul, there is a power of “Yehudah” in the soul, the higher unified aspect of the Torah, and there is also the power of “Yissocher” in the soul, which refers to one’s personal share and understanding in Torah, just as Yissocher was blessed with the special ability to know the constellations and figure out how to sanctify the month. And there is a power of “Dan” in the soul – to combine together all the details of Torah, both the parts of Torah that are uniquely yours as well as the parts that aren’t uniquely yours, just as Dan was m’asef l’kol hamachanos.

These are three abilities of Torah in each person – the soul’s power of Yissocher (personal part in Torah), Yehudah (general Torah), and Dan (the combination of personal and general parts of Torah).

The level of Yehudah represents the higher root of Torah, also known as the “Torah of Mashiach”. The level of Dan is when a person learns other parts of Torah even when they aren’t his own portion, as well as other styles of learning which he isn’t drawn to.

It takes wisdom to understand how to “split up” one’s Torah learning between these three different aspects. One cannot spend all his time in his Torah learning by learning only his own part in Torah, nor should he spend his entire Torah learning on other areas which he isn’t drawn towards. But the goal should be that one needs to reach his own personal share in Torah, by exerting himself in Torah study in the area he is drawn towards (Yissocher), and to reach his higher root in Torah, through mesirus nefesh (Yehudah), and by exerting himself in Torah study in areas that he isn’t particularly drawn towards (Dan). One needs mesirus nefesh to go above (Yehudah), as well as mesirus nefesh to descend to below (Dan).

One needs to exert himself to reach his own personal share in Torah. This was explained about at length in the previous chapters. After one merits this, his avodah then becomes the opposite: now he must strive to reach his higher root in Torah, by connecting to the “general” Torah, by learning the “general rules” (kelalim of Torah). In this way, one leaves his “individual” part in Torah and connects to the “general” level of Torah.

Through these two aspects together, one shines the light of his soul through his “individual” part of Torah, as well as the light of the complete level of the Torah which is the “general” (collective) level of Torah, and even more so, he merits the light of Hashem, Whom there is none other besides.