The Famine for the Word of God and Sharing Your Torah

Another interpretation: "Is it not to share your bread with the hungry?" There is no hunger except hunger for words of Torah, and there is no bread except words of Torah, as it says (Amos 8): "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine in the land, not a famine for bread nor a thirst for water, but to hear the words of the LORD." From here they said: if a person understands words of Torah, let him sustain others also from his Torah, so that his wisdom may increase for him and they add to it for him. And whoever does so is not held back from the good that is destined to come upon Israel in the days of the son of David, and of him Scripture says (Psalms 50): "To him who orders his way I will show the salvation of God." "Way" - this is Torah, as it says (Deuteronomy 5): "In all the way that the LORD your God has commanded you, you shall walk, that you may live and that it may be well with you." And "salvation" refers only to the days of the son of David, as it says (Isaiah 51): "My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth." But if a person has words of Torah and does not sustain others from his Torah, he brings evil upon himself, for in the end the wisdom of his Torah is diminished in his hand, and needless to say, they do not add to it for him; and of him Scripture says (Proverbs 11): "He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, but blessing is on the head of him who sells it." If so, "and bring the wandering poor into your house" - how so? If a person has words of Torah and sufferings come upon him, his heart is settled within him; but if a person has no words of Torah and sufferings come upon him, his heart is embittered within him. Rather, how should he act? Let him justify the judgment upon himself. How so? If he is hungry and thirsty and naked and has no food, and is alive and surviving on the face of the earth only with meager bread and scant water, naked and lacking everything, let him say: Thus and thus is written in the Torah (Deuteronomy 28): "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and goodness of heart, out of the abundance of all things, you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst and nakedness and want of all things, and He will put a yoke of iron upon your neck until He destroys you." Therefore let the great and holy King, who lives and endures forever and ever, be blessed and praised, blessed be He and blessed be His name forever and ever, who gave me life in the world and did not destroy me from the face of the earth. And so David said: Were it not for the words of Your Torah that comfort me when sufferings come upon me, I would already have uprooted myself from the world, as it says (Psalms 119): "Had Your Torah not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction." Blessed is the Omnipresent, blessed be He, who chose the words of the sages and their students and fulfills concerning them: by the measure a person measures, so it is measured to him. Just as they sit in synagogues and study houses and in every place that is free for them, reading and learning for the sake of Heaven, with fear in their hearts, and uphold words of Torah upon their lips, so too the Holy One, blessed be He, sits opposite them and reveals to them the secrets of the Torah upon their lips and in their hearts, and concerning them is fulfilled what is said (Deuteronomy 30): "For the matter is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it." Happy is the person who has words of Torah, who sits and reads and learns in a modest and hidden place. With whom does he lodge? With the Holy One, blessed be He, as it says (Psalms 91): "He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High abides in the shadow of the Almighty." Just as they make themselves solitary in this world with no stranger among them, so too in the world to come they sit beside the Holy One alone with no stranger among them; of them Scripture says (Psalms 68): "God settles the solitary in a home, He brings out the prisoners into prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a parched land." And "prisoners" refers only to Torah scholars who bind themselves to the Omnipresent in the study house, to Scripture and Mishnah and Talmud and Midrash and laws and homilies. And it says (Isaiah 49): "saying to the prisoners, Go forth, to those in darkness, Show yourselves" - "saying to the prisoners, Go forth," these are the unlearned who have decency and the rest of the commandments and strengthen the hands of the Torah scholars and keep themselves far from transgression and robbery and every repulsive matter; "to those in darkness, Show yourselves," these are Torah scholars who dwell in a place unfit for them. Another interpretation: "God settles the solitary in a home." The Holy One, blessed be He, brought Israel out of Egypt only for the sake of Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah: as reward that Sarah took Hagar and brought her up to Abraham's bed; and as reward that they said to Rebecca (Genesis 24), "Will you go with this man?" and she said, "I will go," and placed her trust in the Holy One; and as reward that Rachel took Bilhah and brought her up to Jacob's bed; and as reward that Leah took Zilpah and brought her up to Jacob's bed. Therefore it says, "God settles the solitary in a home, He brings out the prisoners into prosperity." If so, "when you see the naked, cover him" - how so? If you saw a person who has no words of Torah, bring him into your house and teach him the recitation of the Shema and prayer, and teach him one verse each day or one law, and urge him on in the commandments; for there is no naked one in Israel except one who has no Torah and commandments, who is like one who is naked. And so you find with the congregation of Israel in Egypt, as it says (Ezekiel 16): "And you grew up and became great and came to excellent beauty; your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, but you were naked and bare." Do not read "excellent beauty" but "ornament of ornaments," because she was emptied of the commandments and had in her only two commandments, one the blood of the Passover and one the blood of circumcision, as it says (Ezekiel 16): "And I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, and I said to you, In your blood, live, and I said to you, In your blood, live." What is written afterward? "But you were naked and bare." What is "And I passed by you and saw you, and behold, your time was the time of love"? When the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Abraham our father (Genesis 22), "Take now your son, your only one," Abraham at once heeded the words of the Holy One and did all that He commanded him; therefore it says, "and behold, your time was the time of love." Another interpretation: when Isaac said to Abraham his father, Bind me well and set me upon the woodpile lest I kick against you and be found liable for two deaths before the Holy One - and he was a young man standing in his strength, thirty-seven years old - therefore it says, "and behold, your time was the time of love." Another interpretation: when the Holy One found all twelve tribes who all did the will of Jacob their father, as it says (Hosea 9), "Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel" - do not read "Israel" but "He saw God," that all their deeds were directed toward Him - therefore it says, "and behold, your time was the time of love." "And I spread My wing over you," this is the Torah; "and covered your nakedness," this is the kingdom of Heaven; "and I swore to you," this is the dwelling of forty years in the wilderness; "and I entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord GOD, and you became Mine," this is the second dwelling in the Tabernacle at Shiloh. What is "and do not hide yourself from your own flesh"? Thus the Holy One, blessed be He, said to this person: My son, all the days that I have set you upon the face of the earth, do good deeds and study Torah, and keep yourself far from transgression and from a repulsive matter; therefore it says, "and do not hide yourself from your own flesh." Another interpretation: "and do not hide yourself from your own flesh": one who has a Torah scholar in his neighborhood and knows of him that he reads for the sake of Heaven and learns for the sake of Heaven, and feeds and supports and sustains him, is found to be upholding and giving life to that scholar and his wife and children and all that is his and all his relatives in the family; therefore it says, "and do not hide yourself from your own flesh." Another interpretation: "and do not hide yourself from your own flesh": if a man married a woman and found in her some fault and divorced her, and in the end she became poor, let him support her according to his ability, as much as he can; therefore it says, "and do not hide yourself from your own flesh." Let a person always look upon himself and know that after a short while there is death; therefore let him lift his eyes to Heaven and say in his heart: Who created these, the sun and moon, stars and constellations and the four winds of the world and all the work of creation, all of which rise early and set late to do the will of their Creator? So you too rise early and stay late at words of Torah and to do the will of the Holy One every day continually, and be like the sun and moon that give light to many, as it says (Isaiah 58): "Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily." This is your reward for the light matter; but the reward for the weighty matter is what is said afterward (Isaiah 58): "And your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall gather you in; then you shall call and the LORD will answer, you shall cry and He will say, Here I am." And just as you did My will in My Torah every day continually, so I will give you an opening of the mouth in clear Torah that no one can refute; and if you see yourself in clear Torah that no one can refute, at once your bones will be invigorated in the commandment, as it says (Isaiah 58): "And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought and strengthen your bones," and then you shall be like a spring drawing from the garden, watering figs and grapes and pomegranates and all kinds of delicacies, as it says (Isaiah 58): "And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."