Simultaneously מורשה and מאורסה

In the beginning of Vzos Brachah, the Pasuk says תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב. Chazal are דורש this Pasuk saying אל תקרי מורשה אלא מאורסה.

But how could it be that Chazal are switching the entire meaning of the Pasuk because מורשה and מאורסה are seemingly diametrically opposed. A מורשה is ירושה and קנינים apply to ירושה because the מעשה קנין is just bringing something that already exists into my ownership, like it says in Behar כי תמכרו ממכר לעמיתך וכו' that the ממכר existed before it was mine. The chiddush of Yerushah is that even without a מעשה קנין, an item can be transferred from a father to a son בירושה. However, מאורסה, although the Torah calls it a קנין because the Pasuk says כי יקח איש וכו', it’s a completely different kind of Kinyan because it’s not like she owned the אישות and now its transferred to the husband rather there was no אישות before the man was מקדש her and only once he is מקדש her does he create this אישות. Therefore a person can’t sell this אישות to someone else, and for sure one can’t be מוריש this to someone else.

So when the Torah is called a מורשה, it’s because it is something that is to be transmitted from generation to generation automatically even without understanding it-without a מעשה קנין. Whereas when Chazal refer to it as מאורסה, you are creating the connection and making something new. Therefore, these two meaning are a תרתי דסתרי?

The מנחת שי in צפניה says that when there is a דרשה of אל תקרי, it’s not to remove the simple understanding but that they are both true. The Ksav Vkabalah actually proves this that when Chazal are דורש something as an אל תיקרי, it’s not to say that it’s not this way but only this way. Rather both ways of reading it are true. He proves this from the Pasuk in Parshas Bo that says ושמרתם את המצות (יב,יז). On this Pasuk, Rashi writes the following:

ושמרתם את המצות - שלא יבאו לידי חמוץ מכאן אמרו תפח,י תלטוש בצונן. רבי יאשיה אומר אל תהי קורא את המצות אלא את המצוות,כ כדרך שאין מחמיצין את המצה כך אין מחמיצין את המצווה אלא אם באה לידך עשה אותה מיד.

If it was true that it’s only read מצוות, then we would no longer know the Halacha of watching Matzah to prevent חימוץ. It must be that both ways of reading the Pasuk.

The answer to this question really lies within the question itself because when Chazal say “אל תיקרי”, they are not erasing the written word, because the written word is מורשה-the written Torah, the תרשב"כ, which is an inheritance and it will always remain as it and it’s not changeable. תורשב"כ can be referred to as a מורשה because it is something that doesn’t change, just like an item that gets acquired, it remains the same before and after the Kinyan takes place and every Jew is connected to it automatically.

But the “תיקרי”, the reading that Chazal said is מאורסה because the תיקרי is novel, new, and personal, and every generation has its own reading of the inherited מורשה. The תורשבע"פ is referred to a מאורסה because it’s something that every Jew can create. The Zohar in the beginning of Breishis (4a) says on the Pasuk in Yeshaya: השמים החדשה והארץ החדשה, it’s referring to Chidushei Torah which create new heavens (see the קצות החושן in his introduction about this) that Talmidei Chachamim make new Torah. So it’s a creation that is created in the context of a close, personal and intimate connection with the Torah and therefore it is referred to as מאורסה because a מאורסה is not just a technical Kinyan but it’s involves an emotional closeness and excitement and this is in the context of the learning of תורשבע"פ.

We say in the Shmoneh Esrei על הצדיקים ועל החסידים ועל זקני עמך בית ישראל ועל פליטת סופריהם ועל גרי הצדק וכו'. Why are the גרים put together with the צדיקים and the חסידים? The Gemara in Megilah 17b already discusses this and says וכולל גירי הצדק עם הצדיקים שנאמר מפני שיבה תקום והדרת פני זקן, וסמיך ליה וכי יגור אתכם גר. But what really is the connection that they are put together? It could also be for the reason mentioned above by the תורשבע"פ, that by גרים where there is no מורשה, there is a stronger emphasis of מאורסה which the foundation of תורשבע"פ. Reb Tzadok Hakohen in מחשבות חרוץ (פרק יט) writes that Reb Akiva, because he was from גרים, was זוכה to see things in Torah that Moshe Rabbeinu couldn’t see. Because the אהבת תורה והתגלות is more by theגרים then born Jews. So the הצדיקים ועל החסידים ועל זקני עמך בית ישראל are the ones that carry the מורשה but it’s the גרים who carry it as the מאורסה and therefore play more of a role in the creation of the תורשבע"פ which comes from the intimate relationship and the אהבה is stronger for the outsider who connects.

The Gemara in Yoma 71a records the following story with שמעיה ואבטליון who were גרים:

מעשה בכהן גדול אחד שיצא מבית המקדש, והוו אזלי כולי עלמא בתריה. כיון דחזיונהו לשמעיה ואבטליון - שבקוהו לדידיה ואזלי בתר שמעיה ואבטליון. לסוף אתו שמעיה ואבטליון לאיפטורי מיניה דכהן גדול אמר להן: ייתון בני עממין לשלם! - אמרו ליה: ייתון בני עממין לשלם - דעבדין עובדא דאהרן, ולא ייתי בר אהרן לשלם - דלא עביד עובדא דאהרן.

When the Kohen Gadol said to them ייתון בני עממין לשלם, it was לשון גנאי because they were descendants of סנחריב. But what were they saying back the Kohen Gadol when they said ייתון בני עממין לשלם - דעבדין עובדא דאהרן, ולא ייתי בר אהרן לשלם - דלא עביד עובדא דאהרן? The Kozhnitzer Maggid in his sefer עבודת ישראל explained that they were expressing that the level of the Avodah of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur was dependent on the level that was reached in the learning of תורשבע"פ. The reason is because Yom Kippur is יום חתונתו as is recorded in the Mishnayos at the end of Taanis and as Rashi says יום מתן לוחות אחרונות לישראל. And as the Beis HaLevi and others write that the whole מהלך of תורשבע"פ is rooted in the Luchos Shniyos because had we only had the Luchos Rishonos, we would’ve only had the תורשבע"פ. It comes out that Yom Kippur, which is a day of the Luchos Shniyos-תורשבע"פ, has an effect on the Kohen Gadols service in the לפני ולפנים that the level of the Avodah of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur was dependent on the level that was reached in the learning of תורשבע"פ. Therefore, even though the Kohen Gadol is the greatest מיוחס among Jews, nonetheless it’s the non מיוחס the בני עממין, through the level they reach in תורשבע"פ which allows the Kohen Gadol to accomplish what needs to be accomplished in the קודש הקדשים.

In our generations, we see as the מורשה is weakened, the מאורסה is empowered just like by גרים. Therefore, nowadays in a sense we are all like גרים because we are all so far away and disconnected from the מורשה and therefore we have the ability to make a connection with Torah specifically from a place of ריחוק and lack of מורשה, because from there is where the greatest אהבה and מאורסה can come about.