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Thought for the Day: There Is No Answer Except Torah

 [Note: much of this is taken from the shiur from R' Czimetn, The Paradox of the Yifas Toar]

R' Chezkal Abramsky used to give a Chumash shiur on Friday nights to largely unaffiliated/non-religious Jews. When parshas Ki Savo arrived he wasn't sure what to say; how do you explain that the Torah allows a "war bride"? The Torah allows -- albeit with a slew of conditions and procedures -- a soldier in the midst of a war to take a woman captive and compel her to become Jewish so he can marry her. Moreover, Rashi notes that the Torah allows this because, even if it were forbidden, the soldier would take her anyway, so better for it ot be permitted. How in the world do you explain that to anyone, let alone the marginally religious. R' Abramsky had an epiphany. He walked in and said, "Rabosai -- before you open your chumash tonight, I want to tell you the amazing principle we are going to learn: There is nothing in the Torah that is beyond your abilities, because anything that is out of your control, the Torah does not forbid. Now, please open your chumash."

It's a great vort/thought/fundamental principle. But the question remains -- What?! Why would HaShem create a situation that is beyond human abilities? But worse than that, Chazal tell us (Kiddushin 30b):

A person's evil inclination seeks to kill him and attacks with renewed vigor every day. If not for HaShem's intervention and help, the person would fall victim to his evil inclination.

But that means everything is beyond a person's abilities to control; it's just that HaShem helps him. That being the case, then why not help him here?

Here's another Chazal (Yoma 35b): No one will be able to claim that he was unable to learn Torah because of life circumstances. Why not? If he says he was so poor that he had to spend all his time finding a livelihood, HaShem will answer: Were you more poverty stricken than Hillel? If he says he was too rich and so busy with his investments. HaShem will answer: Were you wealthier than R' Elazar? And if he says that his evil inclination gave him no respite. HaShem will answer: Did you have a more powerful evil inclination than Yosef? (See the gemara there for how poor, rich, and pestered by his evil inclination each was.)

But let's take a step back: Certainly Hillel and R' Elazar learned Torah, but where do you see that Yosef HaTzadik learned? The answer is yet another Chazal (also Kiddushin 30b): 

HaShem says to Klal Yisrael -- I created the evil inclination and I created for it the Torah as an antidote/spice.

There is a tailor made (well, Tailor made), unique antidote to the evil inclination -- Torah. Since Yosef HaTzadik did overcome his evil inclination, then obviously he learned Torah -- as there is absolutely no other antidote.

When Chazal tells us that "If not for HaShem's intervention and help, the person would fall victim to his evil inclination", they mean that HaShem gave us the antidote -- He gave us the Torah. If a person decides to stop breathing, then he is going to suffocate and die; that's reality. If a person doesn't learn Torah, then he is going to fall prey to his evil inclination; that's reality. The soldier on the front line is in a position where he cannot -- and is not allowed to -- learn Torah. The soldier is going to fall prey to his evil inclination; that's reality.

It comes out that R' Abramsky's epiphany is much more than a cute way to explain the mitzvah of the beautiful war bride; it is a deep and fundamental lesson that the Torah itself is teaching us about reality. Torah is always and forever the only answer.

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