Reply To: Chidushim on Daf Yomi

ברכות יז,א

I will talk about לשמה learning Torah for its own sake. The gemora says in Shabbos (63,1) Tehilim 45,5
צלח רכב. יכול אפילו שלא לשמה – תלמוד לומר על דבר אמת you succeed if you ride (go) after the truth. Says the gemora one should learn maybe even not lishma? No follow the truth. This teaches us that lishma means learning to arrive to the truth. We find Pesochim (22.2) Shimon Hamosini was interpreting all esin (additions) in the Torah when he arrived to the pasuk to fear G-d, he did not know whom to add to it. So he wanted to abandon his whole lives work as he thought his whole interpretation was incorrect. He said I will get the same reward of not doing this interpretation as doing it. Rebbi Akiva included the fear of talmidei chachomim. How come Shimon Hamosini did not think of it? For him this was obvious as the chachomim get their knowledge from Hashem. So if Hashem felt that they were worthy of it, they deserve to be feared and respected, but Rebbi Akiva did not appreciate that requiring a pasuk because he was originally an am haaretz.

The gemora says in Maseches Nedorim (81,1) that EY was destroyed because they did not make a birchas hatorah. The Taz O’CH 47,1 explains this in great detail. The Ran says that the Torah was not chashuv in their eyes, Explains the Chasam Sofer over there that they thought that Torah is only beneficial to know how to do mitzvos, so in itself it does not require a brocho being only a hechsher mitzva. They didn’t realize that the Torah is beneficial when learning lishma to arrive to the truth and therefore it requires a brocho hence it is called Torah lishma, learning for its own sake to arrive to the truth. Rav Chaim says that the cheftza of Torah requires a brocho.