Turn It Over, Turn It Over Effort & Diligence on the Way to Wisdom

(22) Ben Bag Bag said: Turn it over, and [again] turn it over, for all is therein. And look into it; And become gray and old therein; And do not move away from it, for you have no better portion than it.

(1) He said about the Torah that one should search in it and meditate upon it, as everything is in it. And he said, "And in it should you see (techezei)," meaning to say the truth. [The explanation is that] you will see the truth with the eye of the intellect, like the [Aramaic] translation of vayira (and he saw) is vechaza. And afterwards he said, "and grow old and be worn in it" - to say, occupy yourself with it until the time of old age; and even then, do not veer from it to something else.

One can also interpret "Turn it over and turn it over" [to mean] that one should not let [Torah] depart from one's mouth, since "all is in it," that is, one can consume this world and inherit the next, since all can be attained within it, for "the length of days is in [G-d

's] right hand..." If so, turn [the Torah] over after you have come to an understanding, return and turn it over once more, and you will understand something new, even deeper than before. Indeed, each time you turn it over, again and again, from the top of scripture to the end of seeking (lit. midrash), from the end to the beginning, you will always understand something innovative, since all is in it, and its words can bear manifold interpretations, for the Torah has 70 face(t)s...

And one can further interpret "Turn it over and turn it over" in light of what we have found regarding the Complete One, who would exegete 49 readings indicating impurity and 49 readings indicating purity, and even though the readings contradicted each other and the first reading seemed correct, the Complete One insisted and said, "Do not err in this idolatrous thinking, but rather turn it over and turn it over and exegete opposing readings, interpretations for purity and interpretations for impurity, for all is in it, and these and those are the words of the living G-d."

And one can further say that the doubling of language [in the Mishnah], "Turn it over and turn it over," mean that the truth and depth of the words of Torah will not be understood until, from the outset, the one contemplating them generates problems, and it is in persisting in one's problematizing that eventually the Torah's words [are interpreted to be] the opposite of the truth. This is "turn it over." And after one's problematizing, inquiring until it seems that its words are their opposites, do not leave the matter there, rather, "turn it over" with the needed consideration, return to it "and turn it over," the inverse of the opposite and find resolution in this [new] framework, and the words will remain in their truth. He said that "all is in it" to mean that even when, at times, one has sincere problems, and one is left confused without the ability to find resolution, it is due to the constraint of one's inquiry. Thus, if one strives to deepen one's study to reach the extent of what one can comprehend, one can find wondrous resolutions, for "all is in it," it is all words of unalloyed silver and gold.

"Ben Bag Bag said, 'Turn it over, turn it over, for everything is in it.'" It seems to me, by heaven's help, that distilling the holy sparks [from the created world] comes in two parts. The first is that the holy spark is transformed from coarse matter to a more refined, subtile matter. This is called the outer distillation. The second is that the spark is transformed from subtile matter to spirituality, and this is called the interior distillation... When [Ben Bag Bag] said, "Turn it over and turn it over", [the repetition implied] the two kinds of transformation, the first from coarse matter to refined matter, which is exterior distillation, and the second from subtile matter to spirituality, which is called interior distillation. Since "all is in it," this is Torah, which has all within it, meaning exteriority and interiority. Thus it is within it that wholeness [can be found], distilling the outer and the inner.

(23) Ben He He said: According to the labor is the reward.

(1) And Ben Hey Hey said [that] according to that which you are in pain with Torah will be your reward. And they said that only that which you study with exertion, labor and fear from the teacher will endure; but reading of enjoyment and leisure has no endurance to it and [so] no point in it. And they said in the explanation of his statement (Ecclesiastes 2:9), "even (af, which can also be understood as anger) my wisdom remained with me" - the wisdom that I studied with anger remained with me. And because of this, they commanded to place fear upon the students; and they said (Ketuvot 103b), "Throw fear upon the students."

"Ben Hey Hey says, 'According to the pain is the reward.'" Our holy rabbi concluded this tractate with this statement, meaning that whether one is engaged in Torah study or in keeping the commandments, or working on one's psychological traits, in all of these activities, according to the pain one experiences to bring oneself to wholeness, to that measure will your reward grow. Or, that is to say, that according to the difficulty and the exertion that one undergoes to attain wisdom, so will the fruits of one's labour be bountiful, for Torah is only ever actualised by one who is willing to "kill oneself over them..." (Berachot 63b)

Another advantage of the mitzvot is that, in being given to human beings, have allowed them to transcend beyond the angels. This [truth] compels the mind and obligates the intellect [to acknowledge it], for [heavenly] creatures all perform their roles according to their respective natures, but are not compelled to do so, and they do not have any strife in their fulfilling the word of their Creator. But human beings, when they coerce their inclinations and do G-d's will with great exertion and effort, there simply is no greater reward, as our Rabbis have said, "according to the pain is the reward." And thus it is that [the human's] standing is even higher [then the angels'].