“You shall inscribe on the [stones] all the words of this Torah, when you cross over in order to enter the Land that Hashem, your G-d, gives you, a Land flowing with milk and honey” (Devarim 27:3)
Rabbeinu Bachya expounds on the words “So that you may enter the Land.” He says, “You are entering the Land for the sake of the Torah. This is the reason for the mitzvah of establishing the stones upon which the Torah was written. The Ramban, z”l, states that we have inherited the Land only in the merit of the Torah. For this reason, Chazal have instituted mentioning the Torah in the blessing on the Land, in Bircat Hamazon. We can thus explain the above pasuk in the following way: ‘I command you to inscribe the words of the Torah in order that you should be able to enter the Land. It is the power of the Torah which dispels your enemies from the Land and allows you to inherit it.’”
“Therefore, I have sworn to the house of Eli that the sin of the house of Eli would never be atoned for by sacrifice or meal offering” (Shmuel I, 3:14)
>Rava says: They do not receive atonement through offerings, but only through Torah. Abaye says: They do not receive atonement through offerings, but through Torah and acts of loving-kindness.
Both Rava and Abaye descend from the house of Eli. Rava, who was involved in Torah study, lived for forty years. Abaye, who was involved in Torah as well as acts of kindness, lived for sixty years. There was a family in Yerushalayim whose members died when they reached the age of eighteen. They came to Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. He said, “Perhaps you are from the house of Eli. Go and involve yourselves in Torah and you will live.” The family called themselves by the name of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai (Rosh Hashanah 18).
“Thus said Hashem: If not for My covenant [being studied] night and day, I would not have instituted the laws of the heavens and the earth” (Yirmeyahu 33:25)
“For a commandment is a lamp and the Torah is light; and the rebuke of discipline is the way of life” (Mishlei 6:23)
Rabbi Menachem b’Rabbi Yosi interprets the verse in the following way: Scripture compares a mitzvah to a lamp and the Torah to light to tell you that just as a lamp provides light for only a short while, so does the effect of a mitzvah last only for a short time. And just as light is eternal, so does the Torah’s effect last eternally. This is in line with the verse in Mishlei (6:22) “As you go forth, it (Torah) will guide you” – in this world; “As you recline, it will guard you” – in the grave; “And when you awake, it will converse with you” – this is in the World to Come.
The Gemara (Sotah 21b) brings the following analogy: A man was walking on the road in the black of night. He was extremely afraid of thorns and brambles on the way, as well as pits and traps, highwaymen and wild animals. It was so dark that he did not even know which way he was going. Suddenly, he saw a great light. He was thereby able to avoid the thorns and brambles and pits along the way. But he was still afraid of wild animals and bandits. With the dawn of a new day, he felt safe from wild animals and highwaymen. When he finally reached the fork in the road, he knew which way to go and felt completely secure.
A mitzvah is called a lamp because its light is dependent on the oil and the wick. It is therefore not a perfect light. Similarly, a mitzvah is conditional upon a person’s acts. It is therefore not a completely independent entity. On the other hand, the Torah does not depend on anything tangible, for it is completely intellectual. Therefore, it is called light. It is known that anything connected to a physical object is constricted to time. But whatever is not constrained to physicality is above time. A mitzvah is under the confines of time, similar to the light of a lamp, which depends on physical sources. But the Torah alone is compared to light, which is completely spiritual. Torah is intellectual and therefore lasts forever, above all measures of time (Maharal, Tiferet Yisrael 14).
