Rabbi Berele Paltiel Chabad of Snohomish County
Just over two years ago, my wife Goldie and I with our two little girls moved from New York City to Edmonds, Wash. to run the Chabad of Snohomish County. It has been an exciting two years, meeting many wonderful people while learning to adjust to the Pacific Northwest. One lesson we learned early on was that outside the city that never sleeps, most people have a bedtime.
And they should. Sleep is crucial to our health and well-being, which as Maimonides famously writes, is “integral to Divine service.”
That being said, there is an interesting Talmud regarding nighttime and the current month of Av. The Talmud in tractate Taanis (31a) teaches that beginning on the 15th of Av, one should increase in the study of Torah, since at this time of the year the nights begin to grow longer and “the night was created for study.” Maimonides (Talmud Torah) explains that although the mitzvah is to learn Torah both day and night, the bulk of one’s wisdom is acquired at night.
Perhaps the most radical reference in this regard is the Talmud in tractate Eruvin (65b) where the Talmud proclaims that night was “created solely for Torah study.”
What is clear is that night has a unique relationship with Torah study. So much so, that according to the Talmud in Eruvin, if not for Torah, there would be no need for night! With the autumn on the horizon, the rabbis saw the added hours of darkness as an opportunity for additional Torah study.
The question that begs to be asked, then, is what is the unique characteristic of night that makes it the ideal time for Torah? Wouldn’t morning, with its bright and beautiful sunshine, be a better fit for Torah study? After all, does it not say in Proverbs (6:23) “For the commandment is a candle, and the Torah is light”? The Talmud seems to get excited with a few additional hours of darkness. Is it not easier, perhaps even more appropriate, to study Torah during the day?
There are many scholarly answers given to the above question. Allow me to share with you a thought that is uniquely relevant today.
What is Torah?
“If someone tells you there is wisdom among other peoples, believe him… If someone tells you there is Torah among other peoples, do not believe him” (Eichah Rabbah 2:13). Torah, it seems, is distinct from what we generally call wisdom. Our sages go so far as to say that Torah precedes all existence (Pesachim 54a), that it contains the blueprint for the cosmos (Jerusalem Talmud, Berachot 9a), and that the very existence of the cosmos is contingent upon Torah.
Torah is not simply a brilliant ancient text. Torah is God’s wisdom and is the bond that unites the created with the Creator. When you study Torah, you rise above, you connect, and you illuminate yourself and the world around you. When you immerse yourself in Torah, your goal is not simply to amass information, but to gain a sense of how the Creator of the universe relates to His creations. Torah lets you tap into God’s “way of thinking” and imbue its message in your life and environment.
This helps us understand what the Talmud means when it says, “I created an evil inclination, and created the Torah as a spice to it” (Kiddushin 30b). We struggle with darkness, internal or external, whether it’s dealing with the yetzer hara — evil inclination — which tries to pull us down and depress us, or a polluted environment of a world seemingly gone mad. For this, the Talmud says, God gave us a unique gift, a piece of divinity, a gift which allows us to connect and put on His glasses, to live within but stay above.
So when the sages of the Talmud saw increased darkness, in times of old and new, when dealing with ancient Rome, modern personal matters, or a terrorist organization that has no moral compass, they understood that in addition to doing everything possible to tackle the threat and issue at hand, the circumstance calls for increased Torah study. For night was “created solely for Torah study” — night’s mission is to challenge us to illuminate the darkness.