Talmid Chacham

Talmidei Chachamim are people whose Torah is their craft and whose entire vitality comes from the Torah.

The Fish Metaphor

The Talmidei Chachamim are compared to fish in the sea, who would die immediately upon being separated from Torah for two days. As Rabbi Akiva told in the parable of the fox who said to the fish in the sea, "Come to dry land and let us dwell together, etc." They are not like creatures of dry land who, despite living from air, can survive several hours without it, because their existence is separate from the earth, and they only receive new vitality from the air. This is not so with sea creatures, whose essential vitality is in the water, as if they have no independent essence at all, but are absorbed in the water which constantly covers them.

The Spiritual Dimension

Similar to this example are the souls of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and all the Tannaim who are in the wisdom of Malchut, like the Sanhedrin who are called fish in the sea of supernal wisdom and lower wisdom, etc. Their collective entity is called Leviathan, which is the great fish in the great sea surrounding all the earth, called "Yama Rabba" (the Great Sea), which swims through the entire sea in one movement with its fins. This represents the level of comprehension of the secrets of supernal wisdom of the primordial sea, which they grasp in one approach.