Think or Sink

Rav Schwab said the Chofetz Chaim asked his listeners, “So what if the person eating the manna wasn’t thinking of anything at all?” When no one had an answer, the Chofetz Chaim answered pithily: “If one doesn’t think, there is no taste.”

The Chofetz Chaim then extended an analogy with learning: “If one learns a daf Gemara without thinking about it, then the learning is bland and tasteless.”

With this in mind, we can turn to a teaching of the Ramchal in Mesillas Yesharim (Chapter 2). When Moshe Rabbeinu demanded that Bnei Yisrael be freed from servitude in Egypt, Pharaoh responded: “Make the work heavier for the men and they will engage in it, and let them not pay attention to false words” (Shemos 5:9). The Ramchal says Pharaoh’s response was predicated upon a particular approach: “His intention was not to allow them the opportunity to consider or adopt any counsel against him. He sought to distract them from any thought through the imposition of [mind-numbing,] continuous, uninterrupted work.”

Mesillas Yesharim points out that denial of “thinking time” is one of the key strategies of the yetzer hara. For this reason, Chaggai Hanavi cries out (1:5), “Pay heartfelt attention to your ways.” And the Ramchal brings the Gemara in Chagigah (5a), “Whoever carefully considers his ways in this world will merit to see salvation from HaKadosh Baruch Hu.”