Toras Habayis / Ch. 1 – 6

The verse states, ‘Man was created to toil’, and our Sages explained that this toil is verbal: not idle chatter, but Torah learning, as it states, ‘This Torah will not move from your lips, and you will study it day and night. Our Sages explained that a person was surely not created to work in order to live, and to live in order to work, turning pointlessly in a sisyphic merry-go-round. Nor was he created to chatter himself to death. Rather the creation of Man was to complete his spiritual existence through physical acts of mitzvas, and by speaking the holy words of Torah. Our Sages instructed that although a person needs to perfect himself through physical deeds and to perfect his mundane speech, his central endeavor should be learning Torah, for with each word he performs a positive commandment and fulfills his goal on earth.