There’s an incredibly fascinating shtikl of Zohar in Parshas Yisro that should be m’chazek all of us in our learning.
To paraphrase, it describes there the scene of Matan Torah, the great and wonderful day. It states that Har Sinai jumped and trembled, along with all the other mountains as alluded to in the posuk we say in Hallel “…The mountains dance like rams….. Before the Master trembles the earth.” When the Torah was given, Har Sinai was surrounded by two kinds of fire, black fire and white fire. The black fire corresponds to the Esha D’Gevura (Fire of Severity) and the white fire to Esha D’Chesed (Fire of Loving-Kindness), and that they were gathered together both in the right hand these fires, that the fire of the Torah was given through the right hand.
So gathered in this highly paraphrased piece of Zohar are quite a few inyanim to contemplate. The first is the state of the world when the Torah was given, as well as what the verses from Hallel mean that refer to rivers turning backwards and the mountains dancing like rams. It is brought in the sifrei Chassidus that this refers to the great power of the Shem Havayah interacting with Shem Adnus, that is the supreme unity of Hashem as expressed in the name of Zeir Anpin interacting with the name of Malchus, and causing great wonders and miracles to occur. This is one of the various reasons as to why we say Hallel on Chanukah, because we see that when Hashem wants, He will cause great wonders as at the time we went out from Mitzrayim.
The next aspect has to do specifically with the greatness of the revelation of Hashem at Har Sinai, what with the fires being gathered together. Gevurah and Dinim are what make life difficult in this world, the Torah has the power to sweeten these Dinim through our learning. When Hashem gave the Torah and brought these two fires together in the hand of Chesed, this shows that the truest nature of the Torah and Hashem’s desire to give it to us is to do Chesed for Klal Yisroel. This is one of many secrets carried in the idea brought by Chazal and the Zohar HaKodosh, along with all Sifrei Chassidus, that when we learn Torah we must see it and experience it as if we are at Har Sinai at that moment. When we sit and learn Torah lishma, this is mamesh a time when we can sweeten Dinim, accomplish yeshuos, bring brocho to the world and experience Hashem’s presence. It’s easy to forget when sitting and learning regular sedorim, particularly b’chevrusa, but this is crucial. This is part of the idea in Chassidus that we must learn with the kavana to cleave to Hashem, to see and know, in the sense of Daas, that through learning Torah we can merit to all these incredible levels in ruchniyus (spirituality) that do not only benefit in the vague spiritual sense, but even in a concrete manner does Torah learning impact the world.
Hashem should help us merit to understand the Torah and all its secrets properly, to attain d’veikus, and that we should merit to see Moshiach swiftly in our days.
Yismach Lev 