HaRav Avigdor Miller z”l on the Four Fifths and More

 

[I[n Mesichta Brachos (33a), the Gemara

makes an important statement that serves as an

introduction to this subject of acquiring daas – How great is knowledge! 

And the Gemara brings an illustration of how valuable it is.– 

How great is dei’ah? – So great

that it’s placed between two names of Hakodosh

Boruch Hu. Because it says, So one

side you have the word, Aleph Lamed, and on

the other side you have the word Hashem, yud kei

vuv kei. And in the middle, you have the word dei’os

Rabbi Avigdor Miller z”l

In Europe, seventy years ago, almost everybody kept everything. 

But already the enthusiasm was dying out. Now, that doesn't

mean there weren't places that didn't have tremendous enthusiasm. 

Certainly, there were.

Europe was still Europe in many places. 

But in general, the enthusiasm was cooling off, no

question about it.

I was in Europe in 1932  … and I saw how it had cooled off

tremendously; even in places where they still kept, but it was cooled off.

But not only the cooling had taken place, by that time it had come to other things. 

Because cooling off is the beginning of everything else.

When the yiras shomayim, the hislahavus, the fire,

cools off, that's chas veshalom the hakdamah to a

roller coaster that’s running downhill.

Budapest and Germany

And that's why we had at that time already in Europe a lot of atheists. 

At the Tarbus schools, in Budapest, there were a lot of atheists.

There were a lot of assimilationist circles. I'm not talking about Germany; 

there, no question, but all over Europe times were changing.

In Russia, before World War I there were hotbeds of wickedness; in Odessa and other places. 

Now, once upon a time it was unthinkable among Jews. 

But now you had entire cities that were famous for wickedness. 

A lot of kofrim!

Now how did it happen? It didn't happen all at once. 

It happened because it started cooling off.

Because that's the process. It's not insignificant

when you begin doing mitzvos anashim melumadah. 

To do things just out of habit without enthusiasm 

is a symptom that inside the fire has gone out. 

And when the fire goes out it means everything is out.

To put the stories, the ideals, the attitudes of the Chumash into our heads! 

That’s already an entirely new way of learning Chumash. 

That’s how the Chofetz Chaim did it. Because he knew that the

more you study the makkos; the more you think

about it, the more you light that fire in your mind,

the more you know, you feel, that “there is no one

like Hashem…”

Not only the makkos – everything. There are

so many things to think about. Let’s say, … – the first fact in the Torah. 

“In the beginning Hashem created everything.” Which of us does not

subscribe to that? 

We are talking about ma’aminim.

But do you know how remote it is from us in reality?

Do you know what the consequences of that statement are? 

It makes a fundamental difference in everything that you see in the world.

Rabbi Avigdor Miller z”l