Musar su Geremia 9:11

And Chazal have said (Eicha Rabbah, Pethichta): "The Holy One Blessed be He 'overlooked' the sin of idolatry, illicit relations, and blood-spilling, but He did not overlook the sin of bitul Torah [neglect of Torah study], as it is written (Jeremiah 9:11-12): 'Why was the land destroyed?' And the L-rd said: 'Because they forsook My Torah which I set before them.'" And because there are some people who have become indifferent to the sin of bitul Torah and who spend all their time on vanity, and who do not consider this a sin at all, and, "transgression leading to transgression," do not support their sons in Torah study, and through this the "eternal mountains" have fallen, I have thought fit to adduce some of the apothegms of Chazal dealing with the greatness of the reward for Torah study both in this world and the next, and, conversely, the greatness of the punishment [for bitul Torah], G-d forbid, in the hope that through this they will awaken somewhat to hold onto the Torah of the L-rd.

From all the above we arrive at the rule that there are two blessings represented by the two luminaries. One is the blessing of the Torah which comprises the letters of the Holy name of G–d, the written Torah, the light of which has largely been hidden; the other is the blessing which accrues to us through the expansion of Torah knowledge by means of the study of the oral Torah which has itself been blessed by the written Torah. This thought helps us to understand the two benedictions we recite when reading from the Torah. We read in Baba Metzia 85 that Rabbi Yehudah stated in the name of Rav that the sages had left the following verse (Jeremiah 9,11) unexplained. The prophet asks: "What man is so wise that he understands this? To whom has the Lord's mouth spoken so that he may explain it? Why is the land in ruins, laid waste like a wilderness with none passing through?" The prophets did not explain this verse either until G–d Himself provided the explanation when He said in the verse following: "Because they forsook the Teaching I had set before them." Rabbi Yehudah, quoting Rav, said that the sin the Jewish people were guilty of was their failure to pronounce a benediction before they commenced their Torah studies. Rashi comments that Rav deduced this from the apparently superfluous words: "which I set before them." The benediction that this Rabbi refers to is: אשר נתן לנו תורת אמת, "who has given us a true Teaching," which is part of the benediction everyone recites when he is called up to the Torah. The failure to introduce Torah study by a benediction is tantamount to declaring that the gift of Torah is not of much value. Thus far the Rashi on the subject.

Nowadays, when we all recite the appropriate benedictions, our Torah study can be classified as לשמה. In the final analysis, of course, only G–d knows if our Torah study is truly motivated by the proper thoughts; the matter is left to our hearts, it can never be demonstrated. The Torah frequently writes: ויראת מאלוקיך, "you shall fear the Lord;" such instructions refer to matters which cannot be proved except to G–d, for no man can look into our hearts. Neither do the ministering angels know what goes on in our hearts. They are only able to see what G–d has revealed to them. We know this from the Zohar's comment on Genesis 18,9 (Sullam edition Vayera 33) where the angels asked Abraham about Sarah's whereabouts. [Sarah's laughter which she did not articulate was something that G–d had revealed to these angels specifically then. Ed.] Tosafot in Shabbat 12 question how it is possible that the angels do not understand Aramaic seeing they can even see what goes on in our hearts. I have dealt with this apparent contradiction elsewhere; the overwhelming consensus among all our sages is that (normally) the ministering angels do not know what goes on in our hearts. Hence we have one version in which the explanation of Jeremiah 9,11 was sought from the prophets, the sages, and the ministering angels. They could not provide an answer since they did not know our thoughts and and therefore were unable to know if we study Torah לשמה or for ulterior motives. The Talmud therefore says that the meaning had to be explained by G–d Himself, since only He knows what goes on in our hearts. It follows that the passage in Nedarim mentioning that "the earth was lost" refers to the land of Israel.