Rabbi Aryeh Lebowitz

Zia means sweating.

Zia means trembling.

That a person should be with a certain sense of awe when learning Torah.

We should appreciate the magnitude of what it is and the importance

of what it is.

So l'chor, it sounds like learning Torah should not be, you know, kicking back with a cold beer and, you know, your feet up and whatever.

You know, it's supposed to be taught in a way that reflects the seriousness of what we're involved with.

They say that Ramesh HaFeinstein didn't like shtenders when he was learning.

Because a shtender, if you're sitting down,

you pull the shtender to you.

You know, Gemara doesn't have to come to you.

You go to the Gemara.

You look at pictures of Ramesh al-Learning, he's always hunched over a Gemara.

You go to the Gemara.

The Gemara doesn't come to you.

So that's on the one hand.

Additionally, the Gemara Megillah Dav Chafalav tells us that before Ram Gamliel died, everybody would always learn Torah standing up.

And once he died, the generation got weaker, and people would learn Torah sitting down.

And Rashi in Sotah Dav Memtes, when he says, Rashi refers you to this Gemara Megillah, that that was a lack of Kavod HaTorah, that people actually learned sitting down.

Really, by all rights, we should learn standing up.