Whatever Your Heart Desires by Rabbi Moshe Newman https://ohr.edu/

https://ohr.edu/this_week/talmud_tips/7741

Rebbi said, “A person learns Torah only from a place that his heart desires.”

In the gemara, a seemingly identical statement is made by Rava: “A person should always learn Torah in a place where his heart desires.” Both teachings are based on a verse in Tehillim (1:2) that states, “But his desire is in the Torah of G-d, and in His Torah he meditates day and night.” The words “his desire” indicate that the Torah’s learner’s desire is essential for his Torah study.

Question: Are Rebbi and Rava in fact expressing the same idea? This would seem unlikely: the gemara would be teaching a redundancy, which is something we would not expect to find in Shas. And are we able to clarify this idea, or these ideas, in a more concrete and practical manner?

First let us examine the context of Rebbi’s statement. The Sages Levi and Rabbi Shimon the son of Rebbi were sitting in front of Rebbi and learning the meaning of certain verses in Tanach from him. When they finished the sefer they were learning, they each made differing requests regarding what sefer to learn next. Levi said he wanted to learn Mishlei, and Rabbi Shimon the son of Rebbi asked for Tehillim. Somehow, Levi was overruled, and Sefer Tehillim was brought for them to learn. When they reached the second verse — “But his desire is in the Torah of G-d” — Rebbi expounded it to be teaching that “A person learns Torah only from a place that his heart desires.” Upon hearing this, Levi said, “Rebbi, with this teaching you have given me permission to stand up (from learning Tehillim, and to learn Mishlei instead, as I desire).” Rashi explains: A Rav should teach his student only a masechet that the student requests to learn from him, because if the Rav teaches a different masechet, the learning will not be successful since the student’s heart is distracted by his interest in the other subject that he desires.

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https://ohr.edu/this_week/talmud_tips/7741