T285 PNC - 'She Tasted That Her Merchandise Is Good' — One Taste of the Tzaddik's Torah Shines Forever

Beginner: "She tasted that her merchandise is good — her lamp does not go out at night" (Proverbs 31:18). The deep reading: as soon as a person tastes the Torah of the true tzaddik, even if afterwards he is prevented from approaching it and is distanced from it (the aspect of "night" and "darkness"), nevertheless — "her lamp does not go out at night." The light of that Torah he tasted will go on shining for him forever. "She tasted that her merchandise is good" — once you have tasted the goodness of the tzaddik's Torah (his "merchandise," whose taste is "good"), the light of that Torah shines eternally, even through spiritual darkness and distance. The lamp does not go out, ever and ever. Intermediate: T285: "Ta'amah ki tov sachra, lo yikhbeh ba-laila nerah" (Mishlei 31:18) — miyad k'sheta'am torat ha-tzaddik ha-amiti, af im acherei ken nimna mi-mena ('laila' u-'choshech'), or ha-Torah she-ta'am yair lo l'olam. LM 285.