Torah – Harbinger of Goodness
About seventeen years ago, Mr. Ron came to see me. This man had been completely irreligious. He merited recognizing his Creator and returning to Him in teshuvah, wearing tefillin and praying. Today, he is a generous benefactor of Torah causes and seeks to do acts of kindness. He sets aside fixed hours for Torah study each week.
“Honored Rav,” he began, with a look of despair on his face. “I have financial difficulties as well as marital problems. And I was just fired from my job. I accept these trials with love. But now another challenge has come my way, which I find very hard to cope with. My mother has been diagnosed with cancer, and is already at an advanced stage. She cannot eat on her own, so she is fed intravenously. It simply breaks me to see her in this decrepit condition.”
“Do you set aside fixed times for Torah each day?” I queried.
“Certainly,” he answered, self-assuredly. “I consecrate three times a week for Torah study.”
“From now on,” I ordered, “take upon yourself to study Torah every single day of the week.”
Mr. Ron did as I had bidden him. Despite the effort involved, he was scrupulous to maintain a daily learning schedule and upheld it at all costs.
A month passed. One evening, as he sat by his mother’s side in the hospital, he suddenly heard her voice. She asked him to bring her some food, as she was hungry. He almost fell off his chair. It was a very long time since food had passed her lips. He did as she asked and began feeding her.
The scene repeated itself the next evening. She asked for food, and he fed her. She ate normally. The next morning, when he related to the doctors what had transpired, they were incredulous. He finally told them, “Come yourselves to my mother’s room in the evening, and you will see what has been transpiring every night.” The doctors saw with their own eyes how the woman ate like a healthy person.
They began performing a battery of tests. After a few days of thorough investigation, it was pronounced that her disease was completely gone. The growth had shrunk until it disappeared without leaving a trace. After some days of following up on her condition, she was considered perfectly healthy and was discharged from the hospital.
To add to Mr. Ron’s joy, he found a much better job than his previous one. His marital harmony, too, was much improved. He and his wife were joyously anticipating the birth of a child.
In the merit of his Torah study, all of his problems were resolved.
This is the power of setting aside fixed times for Torah study. It can remove even the harshest decrees from a person. Chazal teach (Avot 3:5), “If one accepts the yoke of Torah, the yoke of government and the yoke of worldly responsibilities are removed from him.”
