Page 358 - BAMIDBAR

“If you will go in My statutes.” Rashi expounds, “That you should labor
in the Torah.” The command to study Torah is a chok. How does one
come to cherish this command, which is beyond our understanding?
Tehillim tells us, “Taste and see that Hashem is good.” As we involve
ourselves in words of Torah, we develop a taste for them, eventually
coming to cherish them.

The nations of the world have always scorned us for our Torah study, as
Rashi explains. This animosity, unfortunately, is also found among our
own co-religionists. The ignoramuses of our nation hate the Torah
scholars. Rabbi Akiva himself would have bitten a talmid chacham to the
bone, like a donkey, before he was involved in the world of Torah. # 26347-EYAL-6