התמדת הקריאהKeep Reading

hatmadat ha-keri'ahIn Gamatria ↗

No one is born wise; keep reading, and the path lights.

Cleanliness is acquired by steady reading in the words of the Sages, both law and mussar. Once a person has watchfulness and zeal, all that remains is to know the fine points of the commandments, so he can keep them all. He needs to know the halakhot clearly, how far each mitzvah's branches reach. Since fine points are easily forgotten, he must keep reading the books that explain them, so the memory stays fresh and moves him to act. Traits need the same, through the mussar of earlier and later teachers. No one is born wise. Reading wakes him to what he did not know, and once his mind is awake he finds new things the books never wrote. The spoilers are those of watchfulness, plus ignorance: 'An unlearned man cannot be pious.'

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