Question: Is learning about great rabbis such as, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef or Ramban a mitzvah?

Answer: Thank you for your excellent question.

The Torah tells us that we must attach to Hashem, “l’davka Bo” (Devarim/Deuteronomy 30:20), and that “deveikut” or attachment to Hashem is therefore a mitzvah. The Talmud asks us “how can one attach to Hashem? He is an all-consuming fire! Rather it means one should attach oneself to Talmidei Chachamim (Torah Scholars)”. Now, although the Talmud specifies things such as doing business with Torah Scholars, or making marriage matches with them, etc., studying their lives is also a way of attaching to them. Furthermore, almost anything you could study about these righteous people contains a lesson for us, and therefore qualifies as Torah Study, which is known as one of the greatest mitzvos, if not THE greatest. Some authorities, particularly Hasidic authorities, taught that one may not study stories of righteous people before reciting morning Torah blessings, because telling these stories or studying the biographies of these great people is considered Torah Study, or certainly contains Torah study within the stories.

Therefore, it seems clear that one fulfills a mitzvah when one studies about great Torah scholars, and also can gain from such study fear of Heaven (which is itself a mitzvah), which will lead us to be inspired to do more mitzvos as well.

Rabbi Yitzchak Kolakowski