Shomati

שָׁמַעְתִּי שֶׁהָיוּ אוֹמְרִים: אַשְׁרֵי מִי שֶׁבָּא לְכָּאן וְתַּלְמוּדוֹ בְּיָדוֹ

Shomati she'hayu om'rim: Ashrei mi sheba le'kan ve'talmudo be'yado

"And I heard them saying: 'Fortunate is he who comes here and his learning is in his hand.'" (Pesachim 50a)

By My Rebbi’s table one Shabbos he brought up a question on this Gemara. What does it mean, “And his learning is in his hand?” We came up with a buncha answers. I don’t remember all of them but I’ll share with you the ones I do remember. They are as follows: 1- We should be learning Torah “al me’nas la’asos” meaning not just for the sake of learning, but for the purpose of changing our way of life to conform to what Hashem wants, which is the best possible lifestyle for us. So "talmudo be'yado" means that wherever you go you “bring your learning with you” i.e. you employ it into your everyday life. 2- Be'yado means in your hand. Something that is in your hand is right in front of you. You can use it and give it out or show it to someone on a moment’s notice. The Gemara could be telling us that fortunate is he who makes such a kinyan on his Torah (I’m assuming through intense chazara) that he can whip it out at any moment since it’s so fresh and clear in his mind. [The Maharsha explains that "in his hand" refers to the chiddushim that a Torah scholar writes down. Thus, fortunate indeed is the scholar who records his Torah thoughts, for his primary learning, -and that which makes the greatest impression on him - occurs when he writes down those works. That is why Talmidei Chachamim are called Sofrim, scribes.] That’s all I can think of right now, but if anyone has anything they would like to share, please feel free to leave comments with other answers. Shkoy!

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(Top picture courtesy of www.os.edu -Ohr Somayach)

(Middle picture courtesy of greenleafcapital.com/)

(Bottom picture courtesy of harmonhistory.com)