Pearls of Torah - 019 True Torah Scholar

A Talmid Chochom (Torah scholar) is not someone who knows the entire Shas (Talmud). It is possible that a person knows the entire Shas yet he’s really an ignoramus!

A Talmid Chochom is someone whose knowledge of Torah is palpable to him. That’s a Talmid Chochom. A Talmid Chochom is not only someone who has feelings for spirituality, but even his intellectual knowledge is palpably felt by him. This is the meaning of the concept of chochmas lev, “wisdom of the heart” – as it is written, “My heart has seen much wisdom.”

If one only knows of spiritual feelings, but he has not yet fully developed his Torah intellect, [then his growth is stunted]. [In addition], if one has not gotten past the level of “middos” yet, then even if he is very knowledgeable in Torah, the deepest thing he knows of will be middos\emotions. Therefore, all of his thoughts of Torah are being experienced through his emotions, even if he learns seven pages of Gemara every day. When he thinks in learning, he is really running away into the words of Torah and enjoying it intellectually, and not because he really enjoys the Torah itself. He is enjoying the outer layer of the intellect in the Torah, but he doesn’t consider the Torah to be his source of life.

But if the words of Torah he learns are considered to be “life” to him, then when he learns Torah and he thinks into them – no matter which part of Torah he learns – he lives them, and such thoughts are a kind of intellect that can be palpably be felt by him.