Words of Wisdom from Rav Avigdor Miller zt”l
Exposing the Yaakovs
Exposing the Good Ones
Now, I have a lot to say about exposing the wicked in this world – it’s an
important subject by the way and I hope one day to spend an entire lecture on
that – but I wanted to talk to you tonight about the other side of the coin.
Because it’s not only that the darkness of this world causes the Eisavs to look
important but even more so we don’t see the Yaakovs for who they really are.
Now, this might seem unimportant to us. After all, we’re not Yitzchok Avinu.
You’re not choosing between them, to give them the brachos, to be the progenitor
of the Am Yisroel. And so doctors, professors, talmidei chachomim, politicians,
inventors, they’re just ships passing by in the night. It doesn’t matter.
Fixing the Mind
But that’s a big error! Because seeing in the dark means that you’re creating
for yourself a Torah mind and there’s nothing more important than that. You
know, when you go to the Next World and leave everything else behind the only
thing you’ll take with you is your mind. The attitudes of the mind, the perfection
of these attitudes, that’s what you’ll be left with when your neshamah takes off
its overcoat, the body, and goes to the Next World.
Now, the attitudes of the mind that you have to acquire in this world are
endless. There’s so much to think about, so much to impress on our minds, that
it’s a lifetime of work. But one of the most important and overlooked attitudes
we have to acquire while we’re still here is to appreciate the Yaakovs in the
world; to recognize the talmidei chachomim, the Torah learners, and to see
them for what they really are.
The Frum Apikores
The Gemara in Sanhedrin (99b) asks, who is called an apikores? Now, to us
that seems to be a strange question because who doesn’t know what an apikores
is? But our Sages want us to know that ‘apikores’ doesn’t necessarily mean a
disbeliever. It means somebody who is in rebellion against the Torah, in rebellion
against Hashem. And so the Gemara wants to know, what qualifies as rebelling
against Hashem?
Among others the Gemara gives the following example: האומר-מאי-אהנו-לן
רבנן-– Someone who says, “What benefit do we get from the Torah learners? From
those who spend their lives studying Torah.”, he’s already in rebellion. “What’s
the big benefit they give the world?” he says, לדידהו-קרו-לדידהו-תנו-–
“All of their learning is for themselves, for their own benefit.”
Benefits Galore
Now we have to realize what it means ‘for their benefit’. It doesn't mean that
they're going to get big positions in synagogues or in yeshivos, that they’ll makeS
a decent parnassah. It can’t mean that because in those days when this was said
nobody received any pay for teaching Torah. There was no such thing. Way back
there was no heter; no permission was given yet. Even in the times of the
Rambam the controversy was still very much alive. The Rambam said nothing
doing; no pay. Later, the Beis Yosef has teshuvos in which he justifies taking pay,
but the Rambam says that when they started taking pay he said כבה-מאור-הדת
– the light of the Torah was extinguished.
So in the times of the Gemara when they said ‘for themselves they learn’ it
didn't mean money; it meant for their own souls. And so this apikores is saying,
“Certainly it's good for a man to learn. Absolutely it’s good for his soul. When a
man sits down for an hour and learns he’s making a big deposit in the bank. A
page of Gemara is like purchasing a piece of real estate; it's an apartment house.
And not only it’s good for him in the World to Come; the old time apikores knew
that it’s good for him in this world too. The Torah learner lives more happily,
more successfully, more fulfilled. That was the hashkafah of the old-time
apikores.
But that’s not enough! Because what is an ordinary Jew, a non-apikores,
expected to understand? He has to believe that when one studies Torah he is
not merely benefiting himself with all of the greatest benefits and achievements
for now and forever but that he is conferring upon the entire Jewish nation a
great blessing!
The Greatest Benefactors
And not that he’s just saying it because it sounds frum. An ordinary Jew has
to be convinced that when the people in Bnei Brak or in Yerushalayim or in the
Mirrer Yeshivah or wherever they are sitting all day and laboring in the sugyos
hashas, laboring in Gemara, they are the greatest public benefactors; that the
yeshivah man in Lakewood is saving the entire Jewish nation and protecting
them against their enemies.
And that's why when the nasi in Eretz Yisroel needed people to help rebuild
the broken walls of the city, and he summoned everyone to help – he announced
that the talmidei chachamim must come out of the beis hamedrash and like
everyone else they have to take a spade and a pickaxe and help dig. “We have to
make earthworks and throw up fortifications,” he said, “and everybody has to
help. What do you mean you'll sit at home and study Torah? It's for your benefit
too!”
So along came Reish Lakish and he defied the nasi. Reish Lakish said רבנן
לא-צריכי-נטירותא-– “Nothing doing! The Torah students don't need any shemirah.
They don't need anybody to watch them. On the contrary! They protect the city
and they shouldn't be disturbed. They should continue their studies because
that is what keeps us safe.” (Bava Basra 7b).
Now Reish Lakish certainly understood that we have to build fortifications
but he said that we have to know that the fortifications are worthless if not for
those people who are sitting in the beis hamedrash and laboring in Torah. הß-עוז
לעמו-יתן-–When Hashem is giving this strength to His people –
the Gemara says that it means the Torah, that’s our strength –
הß-יברך-את-עמו-בשלום-– then He blesses His people with peace.
The Border Wall is Not Enough
Now, does that mean if you have chachomim you don’t need walls? Does it
mean you don’t have to have police and an army? Of course not. You need
everything; but it means that the walls and the police and the army will be
effective only when the talmidei chachomim are sitting and laboring in Torah.
Because Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the One Who makes it effective and He tells us
that it’s the Torah learners, the ones who are busy day and night studying His
words, those are the ones who protect the nation. All the blessings on the nation
– protection and shalom and parnassah – come to us because of the Torah
learners.
And so what will it help you if you have fortifications and weapons and
military precision if that fundamental attitude is missing? It’s like in Eretz
Yisroel today. What good is the army if Hakodosh Baruch Hu sees that the Torah
learners aren’t important to the nation? The apikorsim in Israel – even the frum
apikorsim – they think their little toy army, that’s what's going to protect them?
I know it’s a difficult thing to hear but I hope they’ll never discover their error in
a tragic way.
Years ago I said this in public – I said that the yeshivos, that’s our army,
that’s our artillery, that’s our navy, that’s our tanks – and Jews were incensed
when they heard that. They thought I was exaggerating, maybe trying to raise
money for the yeshivah. But I was just saying the plain Torah truth; you can’t go
away from the Torah truth, from seeing through the darkness
Night Vision
Now this understanding of what the Torah learners mean to our nation is
such a fundamental attitude that without it a man is called an apikores; he’s
considered in rebellion against the Torah. And therefore it requires our utmost
and immediate attention. We have to begin sharpening our senses according to
the Toras Hashem.
The Gemara (Brachos 43b) says עתידין-בחורי-ישראל-שלא-טעמו-טעם-חטא
שיתנו-ריח-טוב-כלבנון-– In the future, a time will come when the darkness will be
lifted and the Jewish youths, the yeshivah people who sit in the beis medrash all
day long, will give forth a fragrance like Levanon. Levanon, that’s where the
cedars grow, the cedar forests, and when the wind blows the fragrance towards
you, it’s invigorating. Did you ever smell a cedar forest from a distance? It’s a
pleasure. Ahhhh! You breathe deeply as the wind brings the aroma of the cedars
to you. It’s inspiring, enchanting. And our Sages tell us that one day we’ll actually
smell that fragrance from the talmidei chachomim.
Gaining an Appreciation of Yaakov
“Baruch Hashem for the Torah learners! I thank the Almighty that we have
a remnant of loyal Jews who are devoted to the Torah because they are our best.
They are everything to us!”
More than the big businessmen, more than the frum judges and the frum
inventors and frum engineers. More than anyone else we look at the Torah
learners with love and admiration because they bring all the blessings down on
the world. If business is going well, if things are peaceful, it’s because of the
Torah learning.
And that’s how we live successfully in this world. The more we sharpen our
minds, the more we will perceive the greatness of the Yaakovs, the frum Jew, the
talmid chochom, and the more we’ll recognize the emptiness of the Eisavs, the
wicked ones disguised as the great and important ones in this world. We’ll learn
the lessons of our parshah and successfully see through the darkness of Olam
Hazeh.
This world is filled with darkness and deception. The distinctions between the
Yaakovs and the Eisavs can often become blurred and hard to recognize. Even
Yitzchok Avinu was deceived by Eisav. This week, I intend bli neder to develop a
greater appreciation for Torah scholars. Once each day, when I am in the
presence of someone studying Torah — be it a rabbi, a kollel member, or a yeshiva
student — I will try to envision this representative of the Torah as someone
emanating a wonderfully sweet fragrance and serving as a great source of
blessing to the world.
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