birchas haTorah, maamad har Sinai, and Eretz Yisrael

The Tur (O.C. 46) writes that one recites the bracha of "asher bachar banu...v'nasan lanu es toraso" one should remember maamad Har Sinai.  The Bach explains that the Tur was bothered by the question of why we have multiple brachos in birchas hatorah, first the bracha of "laasok b'divrei Torah," and then this bracha of "asher bachar banu..."  The Tur's answer is that the first bracha is a regular birchas hamitzvah on the mitzvah of studying Torah; the second bracha is a birchas ha'shevach to thank G-d for the experience of maamad Har Sinai. ( As we discussed once before, according to some Rishonim there is even a separate mitzvah to remember maamad Har Sinai.)

The Shem m'Shmuel (5671 last piece) has a different approach.  Rashi comments in last week's parsha on the pasuk  בַּחֹ֙דֶשׁ֙ הַשְּׁלִישִׁ֔י לְצֵ֥את בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם בַּיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֔ה בָּ֖אוּ מִדְבַּ֥ר סִינָֽי׃ that לא היה צריך לכתוב אלא: ביום ההוא, מהו ביום הזה – שיהו דברי תורה חדשים עליך כאילו היום נתנו.  Every day the study of Torah is supposed to be fresh in one's eyes, as if it is the first time one set eyes on it.  It is the Torah itself which rejuvenates a person and refreshes his outlook.  He quotes the Tana d'bei Eliyahu that when a person learns, Hashem is right there learning alongside the individual.  That experience is what gives a person new chiyus -- today's learning is not just looking at the same old text that one saw yesterday and the day before.

The first bracha of birchas ha'Torah is on the mitzvah of study.  The second bracha is thanks for this rejuvenation, thanks that there is a "nosein haTorah" giving us a new outlook and new insight every day.

The gemara tells us that churban haMikdash and galus happened because Klal Yisrael failed to say birchas haTorah.  In light of his chiddush, Sm"S explains the midah k'neged midah: Eretz Yisrael is the one place where one can experience constant growth, constant hischadshus and renewal in avodas Hashem.  Just ask any of your children who have spent a year in Israel in seminary or yeshiva.  Undoubtedly, that year is a year of growth like no other.  It's not just the age that they go which triggers it, or being away from home which triggers it -- it's being in Eretz Yisrael which is the trigger.  Failing to say birchas haTorah indicated a failure to appreciate the hischadshus and renewal in each day.  People felt that it's the same ongoing chiyuv and the study day in and day out -- לא מפסקי לילות מימים וכחד יומא אריכא הוא (Sukkah 46a) -- so why bother with a new bracha each day?  But we do say a new bracha, because Hashem is constantly "nosein haTorah," because שיהו דברי תורה חדשים עליך כאילו היום נתנו, there is a new chiyus that is given to us each day.