Guest post by Korakh the Blogger
(read this first)
I recently saw a vort from Rav Yisshukher Ber, the Belzer Roof* that really resonated with me. He was commenting on the famous Midrash about Rivkas rough pregnancy. You know, the one about Esav trying to exit the womb as she passed Houses of Pagan Worship and Yaakov trying to exit the womb as she passed Houses of Torah Study.
Now Amramowitz the Younger tradition teaches that the pre-natal womb is the ultimate House of Torah Study. בהילו נרו עלי ראשי alludes to in-utero primordial infinite vision and Torah Study when the fetus absorbs the entire Torah taught by an Angel. Accordingly, the Belzer Roof asks a striking question: Why would Yaakov ever want to leave this rarefied academic environment? How could the Yeshivos of Shem and Ever be anything other than a comedown for one currently studying from an actual angel?
He answers that if your fellow student is Esav then it's worthwhile studying from an inferior Rebbe in order to escape Esav's corrupt society.
Today I am a Belzer! This is exactly the ethos that inspired my movement. Even if we posit for a moment that Amramowitz the Younger was my intellectual superior (a dubious proposition indeed, you'll never hear any of that tiresome and transparently fake humility from me!) I urged my followers to flee from the "Rav comparable to an Angel of the L-rd of hosts" to escape the corrupt society that surrounded them, a society built on cronyism, elitism and tyrannical conformity. As our in-utero Patriarch taught us, I split because I decided that if I had to share a Khavrusaschaft with an Ahron and the other it's -who-you-know cronies then it was no longer worthwhile studying from a Moshe.
As for those of you living in 5772 reading this I'd like you to consider this: In your youth were you גולה למקום תורה ? Well maybe now it's time to be גולה ממקום תורה . Think about it; sure your current community is a bastion of Torah. It is chock full of Shiurim, Yeshivas and learned and erudite Magidei Shiur and poskim. But perhaps the ethics there are less than pristine. Maybe a lot of shenanigans and chicanery occur there that would not play well in the Jewish out-of-town hinterlands that, admittedly, can't compete in terms of Torah scholarship. But...so what? To disassociate from contemporary Esavs it's worthwhile to leave the nurturing womb of the big Torah communities.
Even before seeing this vort from the Belzer Roof I always considered Yaakov my role model. He was never one to accept the status quo (especially about the Kehuna). He never meekly submitted to authority openly defying or cleverly circumventing his father, older brother, brother-in-law, men and angels.
בא קרח והעמידן על אחת...כי כל העדה כולם קדושים
Those who cannot tolerate equality would have all their "inferiors" be their slaves
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*(not the current one who bears, and I do mean bears, his name)
12 comments:
So what OOT community do you suggest?
I'm in a living Hell myself but places like Harrisburg, Cincinnati Vancouver, Dallas and South Bend come to mind.
But even well built up communities like Chicago, Miami and Detroit are less Torah-dik yet more ethically clean than the major Jewsih cities in the northeast.
You are mistaken, Korach. Many are inclined to believe that there exists more chicanery on the East Coast, but proportionately, there are just as many sinners out of town.
As for a slower mode of life, or a larger piece of real estate...
I tend to agree with the schismatic on this one.
It's purely anecdotal but out of town kids seem more wholesome and less corrupt to me than do in-towners.
Do you really believe that there is a lot of geneivisha shtick among fruma yidden in Dallas?
If one out of 5,000 frum yiden is an avaryan, there may not be any sinners in Dallas, whereas NY would have quite a few.
I can't speak to the relative ethics of in town versus out of town, but I agree with the sentiment. Better to live with upright ignoramuses than sinners hiding behind learning.
I always considered Yaakov my role model. He was never one to accept the status quo
Hey קרח, בן-יצהר בן-קהת בן-לוי STOP take some responsibility for your own schisms and leave me out of it
בקהלם אל-תיחד כבודי
On the Belzer's Q&A:
"Why would Yaakov ever want to leave this rarefied academic environment"?
Leave he would have to, one way or( Lo 'Alienu) another.
"How could the Yeshivos of Shem and Ever be anything other than a comedown for one currently studying from an actual angel?
Why not say, that if he knew he was going to get a flick on the lip and forget it all( BT Nidah 30b, 11 lines from the end) when he did leave, then he was aiming to get a head start on remembering what he had learned, in the best place available ba'Olam haZeh"?
Also:
"As for those of you living in 5772 reading this I'd like you to consider this: In your youth were you גולה למקום תורה ? Well maybe now it's time to be גולה ממקום תורה".
Maybe this is good advise, but for a different reason.
I remember reading, in the book Derekh Yisra'el( "דרך ישראל" part of the be'Emunato Yiḥyeh, "באמונתו יחיה", series) by Ya'aqov Yisra'el Lugasi( "יעקב ישראל לוגאסי"), towards the end of the book, a scathing Tokhaḥah by a prominent Rav to his audience, on their pursuit of luxuries. In it, he claimed( maybe not so literally, but ...) that it was better for a Ḥaredi Jew to raise his children in a less observant place like Akko, where the children will see, through the parent making efforts to perform the miṣvot( organizing a Minyan for daily Tefilot, acquiring kosher food, etc.), the importance of the miṣvot, rather than in Benei Beraq, where everything is easily and effortlessly available, and taken for granted.
JS: "... but I agree with the sentiment. Better to live with upright ignoramuses than sinners hiding behind learning".
So, you agree with R. Tarfon, who said( Qidushin 40b) that Ma'aseh is greater than Talmud?
>Leave he would have to, one way or( Lo 'Alienu) another.
Although u addressed this later the point that the Belzer Roof was making was why leave prematurely.
>then he was aiming to get a head start on remembering what he had learned, in the best place available ba'Olam haZeh"?
A. because a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
B. because he was diminishing the amount of Torah that he could RECOVER after the flick
C. Absent Esav, learning from an Angel trumps all other factors in deciding where to learn
Tamir-
Rabbi Lugasi's point is interesting and one I've often considered myself but , ultimately, I disagree becasue as Torah is not static it's not as though those raaised in Bene Braq will not have their own challenges and new heights to conquer in their growth in Yiddishkeit. May as well give them the finest education and positive peer group available.
that Ma'aseh is greater than Talmud?
Not necessarily. The Belzers point was that Torah study itself depends not only on how great your Rebbee is but on how righteous your society is.
Korakh the Blogger( December 15, 2011 10:55 AM): "Although u addressed this later the point that the Belzer Roof was making was why leave prematurely".
Re-reading the Midrash( and Rashi's version of it), I see I was wrong. I didn't remember that it said he was actually Mefarkes laṢet( "struggle to come out"). I understood it to say Ya'aqov only wanted to go there( not necessarily immediately).
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