Daf Insights - Berachos 11

We find in the Gemara a discussion as to which aspects of Torah require a Brocha prior to learning them:

• Rav Huna requires for pesukim, not for Medrash
• Rebbe Eliezer requires for pesukim and medrash but not for Mishna
• Rebbe Yochanan adds Mishna to the list but says not for Talmud
• Rava includes Talmud as well

In order to explain the disagreement Rav Yitzchok Meir Morgenstern in She'Aris Yaakov on Meseches Berachos begins by quoting the well known words of the BACH who is coming to explain why the first Bais HaMikdosh was destroyed because people did not say a Beracha prior to learning Torah. Why, asks the BACH, did not reciting a Beracha deserve such a punishment?

The BACH explains that Hashem's intent was that we should toil in the study of Torah in order that our Neshamos should connect to the essence, spirituality and holiness of the source from which the Torah emanates. If we studied Torah with this intent we would all be containers for the Schechina and the world would shine from its glory. There would be a connection between the multitudes above and those below and they would be as one.

Rather than doing this people study Torah for worldly pleasures and their own good. They want to know the Halachos so they can engage in commerce, to show off, and they do not intend to connect to the holiness and spirituality of the Torah and to draw the Schechina down to Earth. By not drawing it down to earth the world remains devoid of holiness and destruction is the result.

Rav Morgenstern then quotes the Baal HaTanya who writes that pesukim, Mishne, Talmud and Kabbala all emanate from the world of Atzilus however pesukim reach down into the world of Asiya, Mishne until Yetzira and Talmud in Briya. 

Based on this we can understand that the more a particular aspect of Torah is clothed in the trappings of one of the lower worlds which hide its holiness, the more the blessings of the Torah are needed in order to reveal the "essence, spirituality and holiness of the source from which the Torah emanates." Beracha means to draw down, it draws down the light that is hidden. Had the light been revealed to begin with a Beracha would be unnecessary. Therefore, when it comes to the study of pesukim in which they are clothed in the trappings of several worlds, Beriya, Yetzira and Asiya, even those who are most distant from Hashem's light can have access, however, they must recite the Birchas HaTorah in order to reveal the "essence, spirituality and holiness of the source from which the Torah emanates." The opinions go on to explain that even in medrash, mishna and talmud which correspond to Yetzira, Briya and  Atzilus there is a need to recite the Beracha even the people who study those subjects are generally naturally more connected to the light of Hashem to begin with. They still must say the Beracha in order to strip away the coverings and reveal the light. 

This leads us to an interesting discussion in the Poskim about saying Birchas haTorah when studying kabbala. Although the Levush and Shulchan Aruch haRav are clear that it is required, the Aruch HaShulchan remains in doubt. It would seem that he holds that the study of Sod is the revelation of the holiness and its source and needs no additional Beracha in order to reveal it.