Q&A: The Positive Commandment and “To Him You Shall Cleave”
The Positive Commandment and “To Him You Shall Cleave”
Question
Hello Rabbi,
Is the positive commandment to attach oneself to Torah scholars—which is learned from the verse “and to Him you shall cleave”—agreed upon by everyone, meaning that it is Torah-level / of biblical origin?
And another question about this: since the Sages say that it is neither logical nor possible to cling to God (“for He is a consuming fire”), what is the Torah scholar himself supposed to do in order to fulfill this commandment personally? To whom exactly is he supposed to cling—himself as well? After all, no one can cling to God…
Answer
I have no idea. You can look among the more esoteric enumerators of the commandments. Simply speaking, the commandment is not to cling to Torah scholars; rather, that is the way to cling to the Holy One, blessed be He, Himself. So the Torah scholar is attached to Him by virtue of being a Torah scholar. In practice, this is true even if the commandment were to cling to Torah scholars. Obviously, someone who is a Torah scholar fulfills this commandment himself. Just not by marrying his daughter to his son, of course, since a positive commandment does not override a prohibition that carries karet.
Thank you.
I looked in the Babylonian Talmud, tractate Ketubot 111, where they bring this exposition, and from there it seems exactly as you say.
It says there that Rabbi Eliezer argues that the unlearned will not rise in the resurrection of the dead, and afterward they found a solution for them from the Torah, where it says “and to Him you shall cleave,” and that leads to the exposition that one should cling to Torah scholars. From here, what you said follows: that clinging to a Torah scholar is the way to cling to God, and the Torah scholar already fulfills this through Torah study…