Eating and Talmud Torah
this is an idea from a dvar Torah given by Rabbi Kahn the Rosh Yeshiva of Yesodei Hatorah.
"And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you must bless Hashem your G-d for the good land which He gave you." (Devarim 8:10)
Chazal utilize this pasuk to prove that just as one must bless Hashem following a meal, one must also bless Him before eating:
"What is the source for the requirement to make a beracha before eating? It can be derived from a kal vachomer (an a fortiori inference): If he must make a beracha when he is full, how much more so when he is hungry." (Berachot 35a) This statement clearly implies that there is greater reason to bless before eating than after.
Interestingly, the Gemara gives the reverse kal vachomer argument when deriving the need to make a blessing after learning Torah:
"...If Torah requires a beracha before learning [as was previously derived from Devarim 32:3], is it not logical that it requires it after learning?" (Berachot 21a) This argument states that the beracha after learning is the more logically compelling blessing.
How can we understand the difference in the two cases in regards with the more appropriate blessing?
The Vilna Gaon provides a valuable insight. He says that the principle for deciding which beracha "takes precedence" is the same in both cases. According to him, the beracha that accompanies a greater obligation of a beracha is the one that provides the greater enjoyment.
When a person is eating the greatest enjoyment is before he partakes of the pleasure. He is hungry and his mouth is watering. He has a sort of fantasy of what the food will taste like. Once he eats the desire for the pleasure subsides. Eating does not appear as appealing as before.
With Talmud Torah, the opposite is the case. Before we begin learning we do not gain very much satisfaction from the fact that we will learn. We must force ourselves to open up a sefer. But once we begin learning and thinking we gain a tremendous amount of enjoyment. When we are done learning we view the experience of learning with much more enthusiasm than we did before we started. Therefore, the kol ve chomer applies to the beracha that elicits the most amount of pleasure.
"And you shall eat and be satisfied, and you must bless Hashem your G-d for the good land which He gave you." (Devarim 8:10)
Chazal utilize this pasuk to prove that just as one must bless Hashem following a meal, one must also bless Him before eating:
"What is the source for the requirement to make a beracha before eating? It can be derived from a kal vachomer (an a fortiori inference): If he must make a beracha when he is full, how much more so when he is hungry." (Berachot 35a) This statement clearly implies that there is greater reason to bless before eating than after.
Interestingly, the Gemara gives the reverse kal vachomer argument when deriving the need to make a blessing after learning Torah:
"...If Torah requires a beracha before learning [as was previously derived from Devarim 32:3], is it not logical that it requires it after learning?" (Berachot 21a) This argument states that the beracha after learning is the more logically compelling blessing.
How can we understand the difference in the two cases in regards with the more appropriate blessing?
The Vilna Gaon provides a valuable insight. He says that the principle for deciding which beracha "takes precedence" is the same in both cases. According to him, the beracha that accompanies a greater obligation of a beracha is the one that provides the greater enjoyment.
When a person is eating the greatest enjoyment is before he partakes of the pleasure. He is hungry and his mouth is watering. He has a sort of fantasy of what the food will taste like. Once he eats the desire for the pleasure subsides. Eating does not appear as appealing as before.
With Talmud Torah, the opposite is the case. Before we begin learning we do not gain very much satisfaction from the fact that we will learn. We must force ourselves to open up a sefer. But once we begin learning and thinking we gain a tremendous amount of enjoyment. When we are done learning we view the experience of learning with much more enthusiasm than we did before we started. Therefore, the kol ve chomer applies to the beracha that elicits the most amount of pleasure.
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