<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 4:26 PM, <a href="mailto:kennethgmiller@juno.com">kennethgmiller@juno.com</a> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kennethgmiller@juno.com">kennethgmiller@juno.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
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My guess is that - especially if the Shira refers to the whole Torah - then perhaps it is telling us that learning Torah will bring us back to Hashem. </blockquote></div><br>That's exactly what Pesichta Eicha Rabbah 2 says, although it learns it from a different passuk:<br>
<br>"R' Huna and R' Yirmiyah say in the name of R' Chiya bar Abba: It is written (Yirmiyah 16:11), '...and they have abandoned Me and they have not kept My Torah.' Would that they would have abandoned Me but kept my Torah, as through their engagement in it, the light in it would have turned them back to good."<br>
<br><font size="+1"><b> </b></font>Immediately following is a statement of R' Huna re: mitoch she-lo lishma ba lishma, which differs from the parallel statement of Rav Yehuda amar Rav that's quoted all over Shas (Pesachim 50b, <a href="http://et.al">et.al</a>.) by the latter's inclusion of mitzvos.<br>
<br><br>Joshua Meisner<br><br><br></div>