By Rabbi Shlomo Zargari:
Alexander the Great met with our sages as is stated in the Talmud (Tamid 32a).
They exchanged many words of wisdom. One question he asked was: “What shall a person do to live?”
They gave him a baffling answer: A person who wants to live should “kill himself.” Only Alexander would understand the meaning of what they were thinking, he understood how right they are!
Because he, Alexander the Great, knew no rest. From a young age he wanted to “live.” tour the world, conquer lands, grab, take over and rule. He didn’t rest even one day. All his life was battle, conquest and training. One thing he was missing: tranquility. Calm and content was far from him and he found his death in a fever far away from home at the age of thirty three!
“What shall a person do to live?” He asked, and his answer was: stop, relax, disconnect from the world, the pressure and the cellphone. Close your ears to the outside world and listen to the sound of the inner spiritual world. Learn the Talmud, listen to a shioor, experience the pleasure of delving in the Torah through which he will gain the next world and experience the beauty of this world.
In Parashat Hukat we learn:
זאת התורה, אדם כי ימות באוהל
Meaning, this is the Torah, a man who dies in a tent…
Our Hachamim explains, (Berachot 63b) the Torah will be absorbed only in one who puts all his strength into it until he is like dead. That’s the secret, one who “kills himself” over it, will live! Will be happy! There’s a story they say about the Ozerov Rebbe (1889-1971). He got very sick. The doctors diagnosed him with extreme fatigue. He would learn Torah intensively through the day. He was blind in one eye and the other functioned only a fraction of its power! So they made a decision: he needs rest.
After two days of being in bed, they noticed he was getting worse and worse. He begged them to let him go to his study even for a short time.
They let him go. He sat at the desk and opened his book and immediately it was noticed that he got his life back, he started learning with vigor! He explained to the doctors: “ this is life… the air we breath…”