Avos chapter 6, mishnah 4. This is a famous mishnah, and I think it carries with it a certain degree of discomfort. This is what it says:
"Kach hi darkah shel Torah" - this is the way of Torah.
"Pas b'melach tochal" - bread with salt.
"U'mayim bimsurah tishteh" - water in limited measure.
"V'al ha'aretz tishan" - sleeping on the floor.
"V'chayei tza'ar tichyeh" - a life of deprivation and suffering.
"U'vaTorah atah amel" - and out of that, toiling in Torah.
"Im atah oseh kein ashrecha v'tov lach" - "ashrecha ba'olam hazeh, v'tov lach la'olam haba".
Let us stop here, since in some versions of the mishnah a new mishnah begins at this point.
This mishnah leaves us uncomfortable, for two reasons. First, we live comfortably and have no desire to give that up, while the mishnah actually encourages discomfort. Second, the wider the gap grows between the lifestyle of the average person and the description in the mishnah, the more challenging its instructions become, since they demand a greater measure of self sacrifice.
Rashi's Explanation: Who Is the Mishnah Addressing?
According to the plain reading of Rashi here, the mishnah is not speaking to us at all. It is speaking about people who are that poor, and it teaches them that even in such a situation one should not aspire to become wealthy and leave the beis midrash in favor of work, but rather accept the portion that was given to him and continue learning. It is not a worthwhile deal: one should not trade a life of Torah for relief from discomfort.
These are his words: "Pas b'melach tochal - lo al he'ashir hu omer" - meaning, this is not being said about the wealthy person, "she'ya'amod b'chayei tza'ar k'dei lilmod Torah" - that he should abandon a comfortable life and adopt a life of suffering in order to learn Torah out of hardship. "Ela hachi ka'amar" - rather, this is what it is saying: "afilu ein l'adam ela pas u'melach" and so on, and he has no pillow or cushion to sleep on, "al yimna atzmo mila'asok bah" - he should not stop learning Torah, but rather should summon his patience and continue.
Two Competing Values: The Case of the Nazir
However, many others, and perhaps most, understood that it is not so simple, because the mishnah has a great deal to say to us. Before we look at the words of the Rambam, it is worth framing the issue with a familiar topic: there is a mitzvah to become a nazir.
The nazir accepts upon himself, among other things, not to drink wine for thirty days, and also not to become tamei and not to cut his hair. At the end of his days of nezirus he brings, among his other offerings, a chatas offering. The Gemara asks: what is this chatas offering for? What did he sin? The answer: he sinned in that he could have drunk wine and denied it to himself. Denying himself wine is in itself a sin against himself and against the Holy One, Blessed is He, for the Holy One, Blessed is He, wants people to enjoy, and that is how He created His world, and voluntarily giving that up is a violation of a basic Jewish principle.
The guiding principle of the Torah, in the words of Abaye, is "deracheha darchei noam" - its ways are ways of pleasantness. And here the mishnah describes a life that is not pleasant at all: a life of hardship is not pleasantness, but its opposite - a life of deprivation and suffering.
On the face of it, we have two contradictory possibilities here. If the Torah wants a person to drink wine and not to be a nazir, why is there a mitzvah of nezirus, with the nazir considered someone who has elevated himself? You cannot hold the rope at both ends - either there is a mitzvah to abstain from wine on some level, or there is a mitzvah to enjoy it.
The answer is that we have before us two competing values:
The value of rising above oneself - and if that means abstaining from wine for a time, so be it.
The value of not causing oneself suffering and of enjoying the world that the Creator made - and if that means drinking wine, so be it.
It is impossible to have both at once, and therefore a person must sometimes give up one for the sake of the other, even if only temporarily.
The Mishnah as a Trade-Off:
This is the framework through which the Mishnah should be viewed according to the approach of the Rema and others: the Torah has no objection to a person having a comfortable, pleasant and good life. On the contrary, the Gemara states that there is nothing wrong with a person enjoying both worlds - the comforts of this world and the divine reward of the World to Come.
But there is a balance here of profit and loss. The basic point of the Mishnah is this: focusing on physical comfort comes at a price, and the price is less time invested in toiling in Torah - a price that is not worth paying. Therefore a person should give up most luxuries, and perhaps all of them, for the sake of toiling in Torah. This is a worthwhile deal, and not only for the World to Come: the Mishnah stresses "ashrecha ba'olam hazeh" - it is worthwhile even in this world, and all the more so when the reward of the World to Come is added in.
The Rambam: Acquiring the Crown of Torah
In Hilchos Talmud Torah, chapter 3, halachah 6, the Rambam discusses the crown of Torah and how a person can commit himself to it and be crowned with it - which is the greatest thing there is, and what a person ought to aspire to.
This is what he writes: "mi shenasa'o libo lekayem mitzvah zo kara'ui velihyos muchtar bekeser Torah - lo yasi'ach da'ato lidevarim acherim" - one whose heart moves him to fulfill this mitzvah properly and to be crowned with the crown of Torah must not let his mind turn to other matters. The rule is that a person must be exclusively focused on Torah study, without being distracted by other things. Torah study is an enormous enterprise, and therefore one who takes it upon himself must say: this, to the exclusion of everything else.
And further: "velo yasim al libo sheyikneh Torah im ha'osher vehakavod ke'echad" - a person should not set his sights on acquiring Torah together with wealth and honor at the same time. It may in fact turn out that way, and there is nothing wrong with wealth and honor, but that is not the goal one should aim for; he must push it aside in favor of devotion to Torah study.
The Rambam then immediately quotes our Mishnah word for word: "kach hi darkah shel Torah: pas bemelach tochal, umayim bemesurah tishteh, ve'al ha'aretz tishan, vechayei tza'ar tichyeh, uvaTorah atah amel".
And the conclusion of the matter: "lo alecha hamelachah ligmor" - it is not your obligation to reach the end of the task, for the Torah is infinite and you will never reach its end. "velo atah ven chorin libatel mimenah" - and on the other hand you are not at liberty to give up and say "I am exempt"; rather, you must do the very best you can. "ve'im hirbisa Torah - hirbisa sachar", and that should be the motivation. "vesachar lefi hatza'ar".
The measure of reward, then, depends on the measure of pain. We have already seen this principle in earlier mishnayos: "lefum tza'ara agra" - according to the effort a person invests, the price he pays, the suffering he endures and the resources he devotes, so will his reward be.
It emerges that according to the Rambam the mishnah is speaking directly to us: a person must push aside anything that constitutes a distraction, in order to focus on Torah study to the exclusion of everything else. And if that means sleeping on the floor - it is worth it.
The Rambam: Fulfilling the Torah and Retaining It
In halachah 12 the Rambam focuses not on acquiring Torah but on retaining it - on constantly reviewing and repeating what one has learned. Anyone who is slack and lazy in his approach to Torah, in reviewing it and studying it, will not retain it. Torah is not retained by those who learn amid luxury and comfort, who learn while eating and drinking, but rather by those who have mesirus nefesh, who kill themselves over Torah study and push their bodies to the very limit - even when the back aches and even when it is cold outside - who do not give sleep to their eyes or slumber to their eyelids, but keep going.
This is what the Sages hinted at based on the verse "zos haTorah adam ki yamus be'ohel" - "this is the Torah: a man who dies in a tent." The hint is derived not according to its original context, and the Rambam teaches from it: you find Torah only in one who kills himself in the tent of wisdom.
The idea that emerges here is that Torah demands absolute devotion. One who takes things lightly and seeks comfort - not only will it cost him in reward, by the rule of "lefum tza'ara agra," but he will not retain the Torah at all. Torah is not retained through comfort and luxury, but only by one who kills himself over it and pushes himself to the limit.
This, then, is a message for every single Jew. True, Rashi teaches that every Jew is obligated in Torah study even if he is destitute, but even those of us who are not so poor as to sleep on the floor without a pillow - if we seek Torah, and indeed we are commanded to acquire it - are required to push and to exert ourselves. This demands a complete rejection of superfluous luxuries and settling for the bare minimum, in order to focus on Torah study.
"Derech Chaim": Precision in the Language of the Mishnah
The author of "Derech Chaim" examines the wording of the mishnah itself, and sees in it a technique for succeeding at this lofty challenge. Notice the forms of the verbs: "pas bamelach tochal" - "bread with salt you shall eat" - in the future tense. "umayim bimsurah tishteh" - "and water in measure you shall drink" - future tense. "ve'al ha'aretz tishan" - "and on the ground you shall sleep" - future tense. "vechayei tza'ar tichyeh" - "and a life of hardship you shall live" - future tense. But "uvaTorah atah amel" - "and in Torah you toil" - is in the present tense. Not "you shall toil," but "you toil."
The idea is focusing on the here and now: now is the time to learn, and everything else is pushed aside. Are you hungry? Later. Are you tired? Later. One should not be troubled by the future; when the need arises, it will arise. Until then a person focuses on the present. And this is the technique: one who is now thinking about what he will eat later, how he will sleep and how things will look afterward, is not inside the moment and is not actually toiling in Torah. He must be in the state of "yamus be'ohel," dead to the world: only one thing matters here and now - his Torah study, and he will deal with everything else afterward.
This also clarifies the Rambam's words cited above, that Torah is not found among those who eat and drink while learning: he does not mean that a person is forbidden to eat and drink, but that when it is time for seder, he does not eat and does not drink. And when mealtime arrives, there is no problem at all with learning while eating; on the contrary, that may well be the ideal approach. The rule is: you learn, and you do not learn while eating.
In summary: in this mishnah we addressed the discomfort it arouses, and the two ways of understanding it - according to Rashi, that it is not directed at the wealthy man but at the poor man, that he should not hold himself back from learning; and according to the Rambam, the Rema and others, that it speaks to every person. We presented the tension between the two competing values, as it emerges from the mitzvah of the nazir and from the principle "deracheha darchei noam," and we learned that we are dealing with a worthwhile trade: giving up luxuries in exchange for toil in Torah, which is "ashrecha" even in this world. From the Rambam we learned that acquiring Torah requires exclusive focus, and that retaining it depends on mesirus nefesh and on killing oneself in the tent of Torah, and from "Derech Chaim" we learned the practical key - focusing on the present, in the language of "atah amel."