וְלָקַחְתָּ מֵרֵאשִׁית כָּל-פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה, אֲשֶׁר

וְלָקַחְתָּ מֵרֵאשִׁית כָּל-פְּרִי הָאֲדָמָה, אֲשֶׁר תָּבִיא מֵאַרְצְךָ אֲשֶׁר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ--וְשַׂמְתָּ בַטֶּנֶא

Why is the torah nishmal to a tena? A tene is a kli,

Could it be the torah is just a kli to hold something else?

Reishis chachma yiras hashem

What goes into the tene? The pasuk says:

וְלָקַחְתָּ מֵרֵאשִׁית - וְשַׂמְתָּ בַטֶּנֶא

The Torah is a kli for yiras shamayim

Chazal say - כל שיראתו קודמת לחכמתו, חכמתו מתקיימת

Why? Imagine having a big, beautiful basket, and only a few singles grapes inside it

יראת ה' היא אוצרו

Torah is the kli, but the otzer itself is yiras shmayaim

Chazal also say - kol shechachmaso meruba mimaasov….

Which one is it, Yira or maasim?

I believe they are one and the same

How does a person know if he has yiras hashem?

It’s misbateh through his maasim.

And maybe this is also merumaz in the pasuk

וְלָקַח הַכֹּהֵן הַטֶּנֶא, מִיָּדֶךָ; וְהִנִּיחוֹ--לִפְנֵי, מִזְבַּח יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ

The Tene needs to come from your hands, your maasim

The Torah is the Tene, the Otzar is the Yiras Shamayim, and both together are miyadecha, your maasim

How do we get yiras shmayaim? Lechorah there’s a stira. Chazal say, hakol…

Yet, we find pesukim that show yiras shamayim comes from Hashem… I was reading Yirmiya before tisha be’av and saw, right before churban

וְעַתָּה, לָכֵן כֹּה-אָמַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל: אֶל-הָעִיר הַזֹּאת--אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם אֹמְרִים נִתְּנָה בְּיַד מֶלֶךְ-בָּבֶל, בַּחֶרֶב וּבָרָעָב וּבַדָּבֶר. לז הִנְנִי מְקַבְּצָם מִכָּל-הָאֲרָצוֹת, אֲשֶׁר הִדַּחְתִּים שָׁם ...לט וְנָתַתִּי לָהֶם לֵב אֶחָד, וְדֶרֶךְ אֶחָד, לְיִרְאָה אוֹתִי, כָּל-הַיָּמִים--לְטוֹב לָהֶם, וְלִבְנֵיהֶם אַחֲרֵיהֶם. מ וְכָרַתִּי לָהֶם, בְּרִית עוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר לֹא-אָשׁוּב מֵאַחֲרֵיהֶם, לְהֵיטִיבִי אוֹתָם; וְאֶת-יִרְאָתִי אֶתֵּן בִּלְבָבָם, לְבִלְתִּי סוּר מֵעָלָי.

So we see it comes from Hashem, so why hakol bidei?

I asked this question to my rebbe

My Rebbe answered that it’s true that it comes from Hashem, but we have to work for it by being erliche yidden, learning and davening as we should, etc.

Perhaps this is nirmaz in the words, vesamta hatene biyadecha - the tene, which the torah, and yadecha, which is your maasim, those are the basis for the ראשית כל פרי otzar of yiras shamayim

Also, maybe that’s nirmaz in chazal that hakol bidei shamayim chutz… why bidei? Why not hakol mishamayim? Because it IS mishamayim, but it’s not bidei shamayim. It’s biyadecha, to do the maasim

I also asked the modzitcher rebbe this question at the chasunah, and he responded that indeed it comes from shamayim, but we need to have the ratzon for it. And ratzon is not something they give from shamayim, that needs to come from us.

I believe that this is nirmaz in the parsha as well.

We said before that the Tene, which is the Torah, is the kli for the yiras shamayim.

What is a kli? Kli is ratzon.

Chazal say, barasi yetzer hara, barasi torah tavlin.

The baal hasulam says that what makes us seperate from Hashem is out ratzon lekabel. Without that we wouldn’t be a nivra, we would be part of hashem, and Hashem wouldn’t be able to be meitiv to us, so this ratzon lekabel is neccecary. But at the same time, it seperates us from Hashem, because Hashem has no ratzon lekabel, and the anaf wants to be dome leshorsho, uledavka bo, so we need this ratzon, yet it seperates us. So what’s the eitza?

Barasi yetzer hara, barasi torah tavlin.

Yetzer is oisiyos ratzon. The Yetzer isn’t bad, beetzem, but it needs a tavlin. It doesn’t say the torah banishes the yetzer hara, it is a tavlin, it FIXES it.

We remain with a ratzon, but our ratzon becomes mesukan through the torah.

And therefore the Torah is nimshal to a tene, a kli, because it is mesaken our ratzon, to fear him

want to do everything for Hashem and give him a nachas ruach,

And therefore the torah becomes a kli --- the ratzon for the yiras shamayim that is the otzar, the reishis chachama yiras hashem, the reishis kol pri that goes INTO the basket, the kli of ratzon.

מִי יִתֵּן וְהָיָה לְבָבָם זֶה לָהֶם

לְיִרְאָה אֹתִי וְלִשְׁמֹר אֶת כָּל מִצְוֹתַי כָּל הַיָּמִים

לְמַעַן יִיטַב לָהֶם וְלִבְנֵיהֶם לְעֹלָם:

וְנָתַתִּי לָהֶם לֵב אֶחָד וְדֶרֶךְ אֶחָד לְיִרְאָה אוֹתִי כָּל-הַיָּמִים--לְטוֹב לָהֶם וְלִבְנֵיהֶם אַחֲרֵיהֶם.

We see clearly that yiras shamayim and hashem’s hatava are one and the same, one is connected to the other, the otzar of hashem’s bracha is talui in the otzar of yiras shamayim

And this is what the Modzitcher rebbe told me. Yes, yiras shamayim comes from Hashem, but we have to want it. And how to we build our ratzon to want it, through the Tene -- the torah we learn and the maasim we do. So my rebbe and the modzitcher rebbe are be’etzem saying the same thing. My Rebbe said that we get yiras shamayim lefi our maasim, which is the tene biyadecha, and the modzitzer rebbe is saying we get yiras shamayim lefi our ratzon, but how is that ratzon built? Through the tene biyadecha, through the torah tavlin, our ratzon becomes mesukan to be a kli for yiras shamayim, and once we have the true kli, Hashem gives it to us as a gift.