Reply To: Short & Sweet

Vzos HaBracha: Birkas HaTorah

The Beis HaLevi asks an intriguing question. When we leave the Sukkah, we need to make a new Bracha when we re-enter it. Yet when it comes to Birkas HaTorah, even when we close a Sefer and walk away, we do not make a new Bracha when we pick it up again. Why is that?

The Beis HaLevi answers by pointing to a different halacha from hilchos Brachos. If a bunch of people are eating together and only some of them leave, the ones who leave do not need to make a new Bracha when they return. Since they left their friends still busy with the meal they do not consider themselves to be done eating, they are not מסיח דעת.

Says the Beis HaLevi, the same is true when it comes to learning Torah. Even when one stops learning, if he is leaving his friends busy with their learning, he is not מסיח דעת from returning.

The Beis HaLevi sees an allusion to this idea in this weeks Parsha. שמח זבולון בצאתך, Zevulon rejoices when he leaves on a business trip. Why? ויששכר באהלך, because he is leaving his friend and partner still toiling in Torah, and therefore neither of them is מסיח דעת from Torah.

לע״נ דוד חיים בן ישראל דוב הכהן
לע״נ ר׳ חיים דוב בן ר׳ בןציון שלום