Daf Yomi, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Torah and Psychology, Marriage Counseling, Psychotherapy
Similar to yesterday’s daf, our Gemara on Amud Aleph uses an interesting idiom for an intense pleasure or specific achievement in Torah: “ad l’achas.” Literally this translates as “until one,” which requires some explanation. Before we go to the commentaries, the impression one gets is something like “until a singularity” or until a unique degree of insight or attainment.
Tosafos (ibid) offers two explanations:
(1) The Hebrew word “l’achas” (“a singularity”) is linguistically connected to the Aramaic “la-chada,” which means “exceedingly.” (This Aramaic word can be found many times in Targum Onkelos; two examples are Bereishis 1:31 and Shemos 14:10.) I believe it is also etymologically connected to the Aramaic word for sharp, “chad,” which is also connected to the word “single,” (chada) as something sharp comes to a single point. Also interesting is the Aramaic word “achid,” which means to be attached to or held, and the Hebrew word “achiz” or “ochez”, which might etymologically come from the idea of to become one.
(2) The word “l’achas” means to a single point—deep down until the soul. The soul is known as the singularity (“yechida”), as in the famous poem and song composed by Rav Hutner zt”l, based on the Sefer Charedim (Lo Sa’ase, poem 3), “Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh.” See also Derech Hashem (3:4) and Vayikra Rabbah 4:8, where a part of the soul is called the yechida.
Ben Yehoyada (ibid) explains that there are two kinds of love. There is a compound love, and there is a simple, essential love. Some people love things because of what they get, as in the famous Yiddish adage: “You love fish? If you loved fish that much, you wouldn’t eat it.” Then there is love for the essence of the person or thing, not based on any benefit other than its true self. That is the kind of love that was aroused for this piece of Torah.
Another thought that occurs to me is the idea that each person somehow has a unique voice or dimension of Torah. This is represented in the teaching of the Zohar Chadash (91a) that there are approximately 600,000 letters in the Torah, parallel to the 600,000 archetypal Jewish souls. Similarly, in the Shabbos Shemoneh Esre liturgy we pray that Hashem grant us “our portion in Torah.” It should say “a portion in Torah“. The use of the word “our” implies that each and every one of us has a specific share in Torah. If so, the phrase here might mean that he came to understand a unique dimension that related to and resonated from his singular soul.
Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation
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Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW-R, LMFT, DHL is a psychotherapist who works with high conflict couples and families. He can be reached via email at simchafeuerman@gmail.com