Res Gimmel and in Sha'ar Dalet. We saw that the Nefesh Hachayim is critiquing this, and he says that instead Torah Lishmah means L'shem Torah for the sake of Yediyas HaTorah as broadly and as deeply as is possible. What we suggested and we saw that he's very adamant that this definition of Torah Lishmah is not a definition but is the definition and says don't be misled that Rashi is suggesting something different, this is the definition. What we saw that on the surface it doesn't seem to be the case at all. We looked at just two examples. We looked at the Rashi in Taanis who says that definition of Torah Lishmah is to do it because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is to engage in Talmud Torah because Hakadosh Baruch Hu commanded us. And we saw that the Rambam in Perek Yud of Hilchos Teshuvah says that Talmud Torah Lishmah is when a person learns Torah מתוך אהבת אדון כל הארץ שצוה בה, right? And neither of these seem to be consistent with the Nefesh Hachayim's definition. We suggested that in asking what the lishmah of something is, there are sort of three different questions that a person could raise. A person could ask what are you supposed to be thinking about bishas maaseh? A person could ask what's the immediate goal of the learning? And then a person could ask what the ultimate goal or motivation of the learning is, right? And just sort of concretized the difference between those questions we gave the moshel that the scientists who were working on the Manhattan Project. If you asked what they were thinking about bishas maaseh, they were thinking about the different laws of physics and the different ideas that they had. What was the immediate goal? The immediate goal was to produce this powerful weapon. What was the ultimate goal? The ultimate goal was to win the war and to save the world from the Nazis. But it doesn't mean that at every moment while they were working on the project, at every moment they were thinking about the fact that we're trying to win the war, we're trying to win the war. On the contrary, if they would have been thinking about that at every moment, it would have distracted them from their ability to focus on the issue at hand. What we said is that when Rav Chaim Volozhiner critiques the opinion of dveikus and insists that the lishmah of Torah means l'shem Torah, he's responding to the first two of the three questions. He's responding to the question of what is a person thinking about bishas maaseh and what is the immediate goal? What a person is thinking about is not thinking about dveikus. He's thinking about the sugya. And what's the immediate goal? The immediate goal is that he's not learning in such a way to arouse himself to some emotional rapturous state of dveikus. He is oriented to is to understand to the best of his ability as deeply and as precisely as possible what the divrei Torah are. But he's not commenting on what the ultimate goal or motivation of the Talmud Torah is. Which is why it's not at variance with what we saw in the Rambam in Hilchos Teshuvah, it's not at variance with that Rashi in Taanis. Then we saw just maybe review this paragraph for a moment and then we'll take a look at the sheets that just went around. We saw as further proof perhaps of this understanding of what he has in mind the Torah Lishmah in the beginning of Perek Vav, it's in Page Res Tes Zayin. The first paragraph, וזאת האמת שזו היא הדרך האמיתית, right? This is the derech ha'amitit, right? Behey hayedia. אשר בו בחר הוא יתברך שמו שבכל עת שיכין האדם עצמו ללמוד,
before a person begins learning, ראוי לו להתיישב אף קודם שיתחיל, he should compose himself, he should reflect על כל פנים זמן מועט ביראת השם טהורה בטהרת הלב להתוודות על חטאו מעומקא דליבא,
a person should do teshuvah before learning Torah כדי שתהא תורתו קדושה וטהורה. And he says ויכוין להסתבק בלימודו בו בתורה בו בהקדוש ברוך הוא, and his kavannah is his kavannah when he's not when he's learning, right? His kavannah when... When he's thinking about the learning, when he's thinking about what his ultimate goal and motivations are, so his kavanah is להזדבק בלמודו בו בתורה בו בהקדוש ברוך הוא. Why? Because היינו להסתבק בכל כחותיו לדבר השם זו הלכה. If a person is doveik in the dvar Hashem, בזה הוא דובק בו יתברך ממש כביכול. That in being doveik in Torah, so in so doing, we're doveik in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. How is that? כי הוא יתברך ורצונו אחד, because Hashem and his ratzon as is embodied in the Torah are one. Kemo shekasuv bazohar, וכל דין והלכה מתורה הקדושה הוא רצונו יתברך. Okay. Now I think that there's further corroboration of this understanding if you take a look at the sheet that just went around. It's from the Rav Chaim Volozhiner on Pirkei Avos in Perek Vav, where the in Perek Kinyan Torah, where the braisa speaks of of lomed torah lishmah. So if you take a look here, most of it is just a, at least what we're going to read initially, is just sort of a synopsis of what we saw in in here in Sha'ar Dalet already. But let's take a look. In the right-hand column, around eight lines down at the end of the end of the line after the period, v'zehu and then an abbreviation, ma'amar raboseinu zal. וזהו מאמר רבותינו ז''ל רבי אלעזר בן צדוק אומר עשה דברים לשם פועלם ודבר בהם לשמה.
Right? So this diyuk that we saw last week already. ושינה בלשונו גבי עשיה when it talks about doing mitzvos, amar l'shem po'alam. וגבי דיבור talmud torah, amar lishmah. Why? ki b'asiyas hamitzvos, so takeh צריך להיות בדביקות גדול מאוד ולקיימה מחמת ציווי השם יתברך. כמו שכתב כאשר צוני השם אלקי.
When doing a mitzvah, so bish'as ma'aseh, while doing the mitzvah, as much as possible a person is supposed to strive at that time to be bidveikus gadol me'od, to be thinking about Hashem, to be to be clinging to Hashem, and to be thinking about the fact that this is a tzivui Hashem. That's what he's supposed to be thinking about bish'as ma'aseh while he's shaking the lulav, while he's sitting in the sukkah. אך הדיבור בהם דהיינו לימוד דיניהם יהיה לשם הדבר עצמם כמו שכתבנו.
But when learning, so then a person is not thinking, he's not thinking about dveikus, because again we're defining what he's thinking about bish'as ma'aseh, what his orientation is in terms of his immediate goal. וכמו שכתב שם הרא''ש ז''ל כדי להבין ולהוסיף לקח ופלפול,
that he's he's oriented to to understand as as deeply as possible. ולא רק בדביקות כמו נשתבשו בזה הרבה, and and not that he's looking to to arouse within himself an emotional state of dveikus. כי אם צריך להעמיק ולעיין במחשבתו בגשמיות הדבר. No, he has to be totally totally focused on the on the actual actual physical realities and facts which the Torah is dealing with, כגון בדיני נזיקין וכן צריך לפעמים לישא וליתן במיגו של רמאים.
He has to calculate all the possible deceptions, מה שהרמאי יכול לטעון וכדומה. Okay. Now I think that this further corroboration of this understanding, okay, let's a few more lines and then and then we'll I think we'll see one line which which which I think further corroborates. O yitachen, here he has so far the pshat he says in the gemara in Nedarim here in Ruach Chaim is the same as he says in Nefesh HaChaim, meaning that עשה דברים לשם פועלם is the manual, is the instruction for how to be m'kayeim mitzvos, how one's mind should be preoccupied while being m'kayeim mitzvos, whereas v'daber bahem lishmah is how one's mind should be preoccupied while learning Torah. או יתכן לפרש כל דברי הגמרא הכל על התורה. No, maybe the entire maybe both both halves of this sentence are giving us instruction with regard to Torah. But דהנה קודם לימוד התורה צריך להרהר be yiras Hashem כדי שתהיה יראתו קודמת לחכמתו וכן להתוודות על חטאיו כדי שילמד אחר כך בטהרה אבל בשעת עסק התורה אמר ודבר בהם לשמם
l'sheim eisik haTorah. So part of this we've seen, some more we'll see soon im yirtzeh Hashem. So עשה דברים לשם פעלם means when you make the hachanos, right, when you're before beginning to learn Torah, when you're reflecting about what you're supposed to do, so then a person should be thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu and he should be thinking about Yiras Shamayim, that that should be his mindset when he begins to learn Torah. That's assei dvarim when you're making the hachanos, the preliminaries for before plunging into Talmud Torah, so then it should tka be l'sheim po'olam, a person should be thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu that he should begin learning mitoch yirah. But that when he actually begins to learn, dibber bahem lishmam. Now ואף שלא יכוין בעת הלימוד עניני יראת השם, even though again according to this prescription, so a person is not going to be thinking about yiras Hashem, he's not going to be thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu while learning, מכל מקום כל הלימוד הוא לשם יחוד קודשא בריך הוא.
So what do you mean? I think his whole definition, the whole thrust here is that the lishmah of limmud is l'sheim Torah. So what does it mean that כל הלימוד הוא לשם יחוד קודשא בריך הוא? He says no, in terms of what the ultimate goal is, the ultimate goal is that one is coming closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, but not that one's coming closer to Hakadosh Baruch Hu because while learning Torah it arouses one emotionally to some kind of emotional experience of dveykus, but rather because one is thinking only about divrei Torah which is ratzon Hashem, so that then leads to the ultimate goal. So I think this further corroborates the understanding that we had last time. Okay, let's continue a little bit here in perek daled. Is it clear that yiras Hashem and chochmas Hashem are two distinct things? Just from the Ma'amar כל שיראתו קודמת לחכמתו. They're two distinct. So how does the other tzad explain that Torah lishmah means dveykus? That Torah lishmah means yiras Hashem? Then what is chochmas Hashem? I don't know if they're, I guess, I don't know that they're blurring the difference between yira and chochma. I think if you sort of, if you take one line of the Nefesh Hachayim out of context, I mean we've been working hard to make it as compelling as it really is, but the truth is if you look at it from a certain perspective it's also very jarring because lemaiseh, and he's aware of it and he's coming to reconcile this and to respond to this, but the statement that basically that while learning Torah a person doesn't think about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, you know, without the whole framework that he builds up is a very jarring statement. You know, the, of the mitzvos tmidiyos, so the most basic, the most basic, so it's a mitzvah tmidis of Anochi Hashem Elokecha and a mitzvah tmidis of שמע ישראל השם אלקינו השם אחד. And what Rav Chaim Volozhiner says, again, so I don't know that the other opinion which insists on dveykus is, I don't know, I'm guessing, I don't know that they're blurring the difference but I guess what they would say is yeah, but somehow or other a person person has to be me'ayen when he learns Bava Kamma also. He has to have such a dveikus that he reconciles the two. So I don't know that they're blurring the difference. Because you see that he's sensitive to it, right? In this, even in this line that we just read in Ruach Chaim and bli neder we'll see the same here in Nefesh HaChaim: אף שלא יכוין בעת הלימוד עניני יראת השם. Even though a person is not thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu bishas ma'aseh. That's a rather, again, sort of out of context without everything he says, that's a very jarring statement. And that's the next line and the following line which we didn't even read. Okay, maybe... no, so that's part of his answer. All this is his answer. I find more comfort with this... well, but again, that's what... you're right, it's almost like he's coming from the default position, which would be dveikus at all times, that has to be the goal. But he seems to come down very strong: כשמתייגע בתלמודו בהלכה ובפשטות בוודאי שכינה שורה עליו בשעת לימודו ממש.
Which he's saying... I think he's coming back and saying, just like it might be hard for you to accept that there is no dveikus at the time of learning, the answer is that there is dveikus. How can there not be? Correct. 100%. Right. So I'm saying that's his answer. So here his answer is that in my telling you that you don't have to be thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so I'm not relieving you of either the mitzvah or the benefits or of dveikus because one will have the dveikus through Torah. That's his answer. But migu shel ramayim. Exactly. Because that's divrei Torah. Because shechina shora even when I'm thinking about migu shel ramayim. Right. Because it's part of the divrei Torah. Yeah, because it's part of the divrei Torah. But that's basically, again, if without the Nefesh HaChaim, you know the story is told, at least chassidim tell the story, I don't know what the rebuttal on the other side is, that the Ba'al Shem Tov went met one of the contemporary gedolim. And he was rather skeptical about the Ba'al Shem Tov and about Chassidus in general. So he says to the Ba'al Shem Tov, people say that you can read people's minds. So tell me what I'm thinking. So the Ba'al Shem says, well, that's easy. You're thinking about the Ribbono Shel Olam. שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד. He says, aha, you're wrong. I'm not. So Ba'al Shem says, what? A man dehu Yisrael for a moment is not thinking about the Ribbono Shel Olam? Eich yitachen? So it's not... I don't think that one necessarily has to think that that opinion is a sort of blurring the difference between that there is talmud Torah and that there is dveikus, but they're saying the two have to be merged. The same way we learned in Sha'ar Aleph that Reb Chaim Volozhin says that הנהג בהן מנהג דרך ארץ means while going about one's parnassah, so one should be thinking in divrei Torah. So they say you need that same kind of double level even bishas limud hatorah. And that's what Reb Chaim Volozhin says, no, that's not the case. You can plow with half a mind, but you can't learn Torah with half a mind. Aye, but you have a tayna, how can a person be without dveikus? How can a person be without thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu? So the answer is because of the equation of hu v'retzono, by virtue of thinking about the divrei Torah, so he is thinking about Hakadosh Baruch Hu. But without that answer, if you don't sort of highlight that answer, so then the other opinion is very cogent, very cogent. Okay, let's see a little bit here in basically Perek Daled and Perek Hei is one theme. So we're going to try to, I don't know if we'll read them in their entirety. We'll try to get a sense of Perek Daled, Perek Hei, and then I just wanted to at least elaborate one of the themes which he presents here. אמנם בזאת אי אפשר לומר, right, despite the fact says Reb Chaim that while learning Torah so a person is just totally focused on the content of the divrei Torah, despite that fact, אי אפשר לומר שאין צריך לעניין עסק התורה שום טוהר המחשבה ויראת השם חלילה שהרי משנה שלמה שנינו אם אין יראה אין חכמה. ואמרו מאי דכתיב למה זה מחיר ביד כסיל לקנות חכמה ולב אין.
Why does the, why does the fool pay the price to acquire wisdom when he doesn't have the heart to contain it? אוי להם לתלמידי חכמים שעוסקים בתורה ואין בהם יראת שמיים. ובשמות רבה כל מי שיודע ואין בידו יראת חטא אין בידו כלום שכפליות של תורה ביראת חטא.
The way to bind, the way to lock up divrei torah is with yiras cheit. ובהקדמה הזו אמר הרשב"י in the bracket שהיראה היא שער להיכנס אל האמונה ועל מצווה זו מתקיים כל העולם וזוהי השורש והיסוד לכל שאר מצוות התורה.
The foundation for everything is yira, yiras hashem. מי ששומר את היראה שומר הכל ומי שאינו שומר את היראה אינו שומר מצוות התורה.
So yiras shamayim is the foundation for everything. Similarly, the next bracket, מהו עול מלכות שמיים אלא כההוא השור. The same way if you want to plow with the ox, so if you don't put the yoke on the ox you won't be able to do anything. You won't be able to direct it. You won't be able to work with it. כך צריך האדם לקבל עליו עול בתחילה. First a person has to accept ol malchus shamayim. He has to have the yiras shamayim ואחר כך יעבוד בו כל מה שצריך. ואם אינו מקבל עליו זה בתחילה אינו יכול לעבוד. וזהו שכתוב עבדו את השם ביראה.
Right? So עבדו את השם ביראה according to the zohar here doesn't just mean with yira, but ביראה means on a foundation of yira, with a foundation of yira. כמו שכתוב ראשית חכמה יראת השם ועל כן זהו תחילת הכל.
Again, a little bit from nigleh, ואמרו עוד כל שיראת חטאו קודמת לחכמתו חכמתו מתקיימת כי יראת השם תחילה היא עיקר הקיום של חכמת התורה.
If you sort of, I guess that the mashal is that even in the physical world that not all, some paints will only adhere to certain surfaces. There has to be a match in order for it to adhere. Just the fact that you apply it doesn't mean that it's necessarily going to adhere. For divrei torah to, for a person to be able to koleit divrei torah, for the divrei torah to adhere to him, for the divrei torah to permeate and penetrate, so then he has to be, there has to be a receptacle of yiras shamayim. וכמו שאמרו רבותינו ז"ל at the bottom here in resh yud gimmel, אמר ריש לקיש מאי דכתיב והיה אמונת עתיך אמונה זה סדר זרעים.
The gemara finds a remez to each of the shisha sidrei mishna ומסיים אפילו הכי יראת השם היא אוצרו. דימה הכתוב את התורה לרוב תבואות.
The torah has an analogy that the torah is like an abundance of grain והיראה לאוצר המחזיק ברוב תבואה ומשתמר בתוכו שיראת השם היא האוצר לחכמת התורה הקדושה שעל ידה תתקיים אצל האדם.
However, אם לא הכין לו האדם תחילה אוצר היראה, if a person doesn't have the storehouse, הרי רוב תבואת התורה כמונח על פני השדה, it's going to be hefker למרמס ברגל השור והחמור חס ושלום. Okay, let's see a little bit in perek hey and we'll just try to again get a sense for what he has there and then there's one theme we'll discuss a little bit here. ולפי ערך גודל אוצר היראה שהכין לו האדם כן על זה הערך יוכל להיקנות ולהישמר ולהתקיים בתוכו תבואת התורה כפי שיחזיק האוצר.
And there's a direct... Direct correlation between the depth, the degree of one's yiras shamayim, and the degree to which he will absorb Torah, to which Torah will become a part of him. כי האדם מחלק תבואה לבניו הוא מחלק ונותן לכל אחד מידת התבואה כפי שיחזיק אוצרו של הבן שהכין על זה מקודם.
The father is not going to give more than the son has the capacity to store. It's a waste. שאף אם ירצה האב וידו פתוחה ליתן לו הרבה אמנם כיוון שהבן אינו יכול לקבל יתר מחמת שאין אוצרו גדול כל כך שיוכל להחזיק יתר גם האב אי אפשר לו ליתן לו עתה יתר ואם לא הכין לו הבן אף אוצר קטן גם האב לא ייתן לו כלל כיוון שאין לו מקום משומר שתתקיים אצלו.
So again there's a direct commensurability, there's a direct correlation between the degree of yiras shamayim that a person has, yiras Hashem that a person has, and the degree to which Hakadosh Baruch Hu allows him to absorb Torah. כן הוא יתברך שמו ידו פתוחה כביכול להשפיע תמיד לכל איש מעם סגולתו רוב חכמה ובינה יתירה.
This is an amazing, amazing, the other edition, the Nefesh HaChaim with the notes highlights these lines here. Amazing lines here. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is ready to give to shower upon everyone לכל איש מעם סגולתו to everyone, everyone from Bnei Yisrael, רוב חכמה ובינה יתירה ושתתקיים אצלו ויקשרם על לוח ליבם להשתעשע איתם בבואם לעולם המנוחה וסמודים בידם
that they'll come to the Olam HaEmes with all the Torah they acquired in this world, omnam one catch. הדבר תלוי לפי אוצר היראה שתקדם על האדם. Everything depends, everything depends upon the otzar, upon the storehouse of yiras shamayim which we prepare. שאם הכין לו האדם אוצר גדול שיראת השם טהורה כן השם ייתן לו חכמה ותבונה ברוב שפע כפי שתחזיק אוצרו הכל לפי גודל אוצרו.
Isn't that an amazing havtachah? It's an amazing, amazing havtachah, right? That ידו פתוחה כביכול להשפיע תמיד לכל איש מעם סגולתו רוב חכמה ובינה יתירה.
And the only catch is לפי אוצר היראה שתקדם על האדם. Now elsewhere, elsewhere in the beginning in Ruach Chaim, maybe we'll just we'll take a look here. If you take a look, the Reb Chaim Volozhiner here is commenting on the opening Mishnah, משה קיבל תורה מסיני ומסרה ליהושע ויהושע לזקנים וזקנים לנביאים.
So if you take a look in the left hand page, the right hand column, MiSinai. מסיני כמאמר חז"ל סוטה ה' על פסוק ואת דכא ושפל רוח. חד אמר איתי דכא וחד אמר אני את דכא.
What does that mean? פירוש למאן דאמר אתי דכא היינו שמעלה את הדכא אליו ולאחר מותו יהיה במחיצתו של הקדוש ברוך הוא.
The opinion which interprets the pasuk iti daka says it means that the person who was who lived very lowly, a life of shiflus, of anavah, so Hakadosh Baruch Hu says so after his death, so I will elevate him and he'll be bimchitzasi. ולמאן דאמר אני את דכא. Hakadosh Baruch Hu ישרה עליו שכינתו למטה בעולם הזה גם בחייו and even greater Havtacha. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says the person who's such an Anav, the person who's such a Shaphel, so not only will he be עמי במחיצתי לאחר מותו, but Bechayav. U'masik sham, the Gemara concludes מסתברא כמאן דאמר אני את דכא, the second opinion. Why? שהרי הרכין הקדוש ברוך הוא שמים עליונים והשרה שכינתו על הר סיני שהוא היה הקטן שבהרים.
Kemo chen, so just as Hakadosh Baruch Hu השרה שכינתו on Har Sinai because it symbolizes Shiflus, ישרה הקדוש ברוך הוא שכינתו על האדם הדכא ושפל רוח למטה בעולם.
Vezeh shekatuv kan משה קיבל תורה מסיני. Meaning, and he's about to elaborate this, that the key for Kabbalas HaTorah and the degree to which one is Mekabel Torah depends upon Anavah. Depends upon Anavah. In receiving Torah, so what one again there's no greater Hashra'as Hashechinah than in receiving Torah. So here Rav Chaim Volozhiner is correlating it with the degree of Anavah. And he then continues, U'mesarah le'Yehoshua. Why is it that in the chain of the Masorah Yehoshua comes next? Again, Moshe Rabbeinu as he discussed earlier is a Pasuk in Chumash, right? היה עניו מכל האדם אשר על פני האדמה. U'mesarah le'Yehoshua לפי שהיה גם כן עניו גדול. We'll just read the beginning of the brackets כמו שכתוב בתרגום ירושלמי על פסוק ויקרא משה להושע בן נון יהושע חזא משה ענוותנותיה דיהושע.
That Yehoshua was exceptional in terms of his Anavah. Similarly, Ve'Yehoshua le'zekenim, the next paragraph, shehayu gam ken Anavim. Kemamar chachameinu zal, כל אדם שיש בו גסות רוח לסוף מימעט, Shene'emar rumu me'at. יכול ישנו בעולם תלמוד לומר ואיננו. Ve'im ken, Keivan she'ha'zekenim האריכו ימים אחרי יהושע, Al korchecha hayu Anavim and therefore Nimsar aleihem. And finally, U'zekenim lenevi'im shehayu gam ken Anavim. How do we know, what proof, what indication is there that Nevi'im are Anavim? Kemamar Chazal, אין השכינה שורה וכולי על עניו. So here Rav Chaim Volozhiner says that the whole Shalsheles hamasorah is directly linked to those who excelled, those who were standards in terms of Anavah, right? And in our Perek, it's a direct correlation to Yirah. So clearly, right, clearly there's no question, there's no contradiction here. But what's suggested by juxtaposing the two is that Anavah is supposed to flow, is supposed to emanate from that sense of Yirah. That sense of overwhelming awe before Hakadosh Baruch Hu is what instills in a person this sense of Anavah. And hence, what he's what we're reading here in Perek Hey and what he presents in the Ruach Chaim are really one and the same and that the genuine Anavah again is an expression, a reflection of the overwhelming sense of awe and dread that a person feels in the presence of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, so Memila it's that which makes him so Shaphel. That's the Rambam also in the famous Rambam Perek Beis of Hilchos Yesodei HaTorah when he's talking about how a person is inspired to Yiras Hashem, so the Rambam says that when a person realizes just even in some infinitesimal way the greatness, the awesomeness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Miyad he realizes that he is a Biryah shefelah afeilah. Also, the Shiflus is a feeling which is engendered by the Yiras Hashem. Okay. So let's just take a look a little bit more here to try to. Wait maybe the previous one I think we left off ועל זה אמר הכתוב ראשית חכמה יראת השם u'che'mevo'ar behakdamas hazohar ואך פתח ראשית חכמה יראת השם מקרא זה ככה יצרך לומר סוף חכמה אלא היא ראשית להכנס לתוך מדרגת החכמה העליונה
Hakadosh Baruch Hu's chochmah השער הראשון לחכמה העליונה היא יראת השם. A person has no entree to Torah, no entree to chochmas Hashem without yiras Hashem. הרי מבואר הגם שהיראה היא מצווה אחת ואמרו בירושלמי שכל המצוות אינן שוות לדבר אחד מן התורה.
So seemingly, not just seemingly, but actually as well, so talmud Torah dwarfs all other mitzvos including the mitzvah of yirah. Omnam מצוות קניית היראה ממנו יתברך רבה היא מאוד. It's true, but ultimately that doesn't diminish the fact that yiras Hashem is the foundation for everything מצד שהיא מוכרחת לעיקר הקיום ושימוע התורה הקדושה ובלתה גם נמאסת חס ושלום בעיני הבריות לכן צריכה שתקדם אצל האדם קודם עסק התורה
which is why, again, the one has to approach talmud Torah with a mindset of yiras shamayim which is the first paragraph that we learned in Perek Vav, how a person every time the Nefesh Hachayim says, before a person sits down to learn, he should take a moment and he should do teshuva so that the talmud Torah will be misoich yiras Hashem.