- Small but fundamental passuk
Bar Kapppara asked the following question: What is a small passuk upon which all of the fundamentals of the Torah depend? He answered:
בכל דרכך דעהו והוא יישר ארחתך – In all your ways you must know Him, and He will straighten your paths.
Rava explained that “In all your ways” includes even one engaged in a transgression. This passuk teaches that there are times when Hashem’s honor demands that one perform a transgression.
-(An example of this is when Eliyahu Hanavi brought offerings outside the Beis Hamikdash on Har HaCarmel in the incident with the prophets of Ba’al even though sacrificing outside of the Beis haMikdash is a Torah prohibition).
- Keeping learning fresh
It was taught in a Baraisa that when the Rabbis entered Kerem beYavneh they each opened up their derasha with words in honor of their hosts that housed them (פותחין בכבוד אכסניא).
Rebbe Yehuda further opened up his derasha focusing on honoring those who learn Torah with the following passuk, “הסכת ושמע ישראל היום הזה נהיית לעם” – Pay heed and listen, Yisroel, on this day you became a nation.”
How does one make sense of this passuk that implies that that the Torah was given on that day, when in fact it was given Torah forty years earlier?
Rebbe Yehuda answers that the passuk is coming to teach you that on each an every day the Torah should be as dear to those that study it as on the day it was given on Har Sinai.
- Not learning alone
3. The Gemara says that the word "הסכת" teaches – עשו כתות כתות ועסקו בתורה – that one must form groups (asu kitos) and engage in Torah learning because the Torah is only acquired through learning with others.
This is in accordance with Rebbe Yossi b’Rebbe Chaninah who said:
a) There will be as sword against those who sit alone and learn Torah.
b) They will become foolish and make mistakes in judgment
c) They will also come to sin.
