“RABBI’S MUSINGS (& AMUSINGS)”
Erev Shabbos Kodesh parshas Miketz
3 Teves 5781/December 18, 2020
Zos Chanukah
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ENLIGHTENING QUESTIONS
One
day, during my wonderful years in Yeshiva Shaarei Torah, my friend “Richie”
(name has not been changed, as I have no intention of protecting his anonymity)
excitedly motioned for me to follow him into his dormitory room. As he opened
his door, I heard a strange noise from inside. Hanging from a string attached
to the middle of the ceiling was a flying cow with wings, circling the room, mooing,
and yelping.
That
unexpected sight stayed with me for some time. Even until today, when I see Richie,
I think of that flying cow (among other things). In fact, the more I tried not
to think about it, the more it stuck in my mind.
That
isn’t really surprising, as everyone knows that the more you try not to think
about something specific, the more you will inevitably think about that thing.
That
being the case, it’s hard to understand what it means that during the dark days
of Greek persecution prior to the Chanukah miracle, the Greeks tried “to cause
them to forget Your Torah”.
It doesn’t seem logical that they passed a
decree that all Jews must forget all the Torah they know. How could they cause
the Jews to forget Your Torah? Besides, the Jews are a stubborn people- if you
tell them to forget something, that instruction alone will impel them to
stubbornly maintain it.
Last
week I was listening to a lecture from Rabbi David Lapin in which he was
discussing the difference between Jewish wisdom and Greek wisdom. He made the
following point:
“In secular studies, what’s important is that
you master the material. In order to get a degree, you need to study, take
notes, analyze and be able to answer any questions on it - that’s mastery of
the material.
“But
that’s not the way Torah works.
“One
of my great moments in yeshiva was after I had waited for a year to be admitted
to the shiur of my Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Elya Mishkovsky. He finally agreed to
consider me and told me to come for an examination. I was very excited, and came
down to K’far Chassidim to his house. When he asked me what I wanted to be tested
on, I replied that I would prepare whatever I needed to know. He replied that I
can choose. I chose a particular part which I didn’t know well as of yet. He
told me to go to the yeshiva and study it. When I asked how long I had, he said
that I have as much time as I need. That sounded easy enough. I called my
father and asked him if I could hire a tutor to help me learn the topic. My
father replied that he would pay for whatever I needed to help me.
“I
hired one of the top students in the Yeshiva to learn with me everything there
was to know about that topic. We learned well together until I was able to
answer any question on the topic.
“Very
confidently, I went back to the Rosh Yeshiva and told him I was ready. He was a
very intimidating person under the best of circumstances, even more so when he
was giving an entrance exam. I sat down and he asked me what I was learning. He
took out a Gemara and I thought - it’s even open book. How easy. He looked at
me and said, “Okay. So, what are your questions?” I stammered - “Questions? I
don’t have any questions; I have answers. You can ask me any question on this
topic and I can answer it.” He replied, “Why do I need your answers? I want to
know how you think, not what you remember! I can see that by what questions you
ask not what answers you give.”
“Gemara
methodology is question, question, question. And it has to be a good question.
Because if you would ask a question that wasn’t well articulated you would be
torn to shreds and would want the ground to open beneath you and swallow you
up. And I speak from experience.
“Questions had to be good, and that was more
important than answers.
What
do our children do at school? Do they give questions or answers? 12 years of
learning how to give answers. Then they go to university and give more answers.
“What
about how Gemara is taught? Are students encouraged to ask questions or just to
give answers?
“What
about at the Shabbos table? Do parents just ask the questions that are sent
home by teachers, encouraged to just spit back the answers?
“That’s
not Torah. The content is Torah, but the method Is Greek!
“Hashem
isn’t a spreadsheet, or system of data. Hashem is a completely organic holistic
system of dynamic movement where nothing stays the same.
“Gemara
is not about mastering the information, but about being mastered by it.
“Greek learning and all western culture is about
mastering the material; in Torah learning it’s about being mastered by the
material. It becomes your master, and you submit to it.
“The closest thing to Torah knowledge is music,
where you just lose yourself to it. If you start analyzing the sounds, science
and vibrations - that’s not music anymore, it’s physics.
“You can turn Gemara into physical, chemistry, law,
zoology, and science. But that’s not Gemara anymore.”
When
I repeated this idea to my esteemed colleague, Rabbi Dr. Joel Berman, he
replied by relating the following:
“When
I was a student in Graduate School, they would often bring in speakers who
would share their research while giving long boring lectures. One such
professor came and was presenting. I wasn’t particularly interested and was
only listening with half an ear. But a girl sitting a few seats away was
listening intensely.
“At
one point she raised her hand and very respectfully asked the professor about
something he said which seemed to contradict something he said earlier. The
professor replied by lashing out at her, shouting how her question was idiotic
and the questioner doesn’t deserve to be in a graduate program. The woman ran
out in tears.
“I
thought her question was valid. It seems that the presenter didn’t have a good
answer, so he replied by trashing the questioner and making her think it was a
foolish question.
“A few years later, I was learning in Ohr
Someiach and I approached the Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Yisroel Rokowsky. I asked him
that something he said seemed to contradict something else I had seen in Rav
Schwab’s Sefer. As soon as I asked the question, Rabbi Rokowsky stood up and
hugged me, lifting me off the ground, and then kissing me on the head. He told
me that it was such a good question that he wasn’t going to go to sleep that
night until he figured out an answer.
“On
Shabbos morning when I walked into shul, he was waiting for me with a Sefer
open and a big smile on his face. He proceeded to share with me the answer he
thought of.”
What
an incredible difference in the way to approach a question!
Torah
is not something to be mastered as much as it is to be internalized. The Greeks
did not seek to make us forget Torah, but “Your Torah”. They wanted to reduce
Torah into just another branch of wisdom, alongside philosophy, science, and
mathematics. The Greeks loved wisdom and they appreciated the wisdom of Talmud.
But for us Torah is life itself. When Torah is just another topic it ceases to
be “Your Torah”, the Torah of Hashem.
We
have to try to teach our children to ponder, wonder, think and question. They should
not accept the timeless wisdom of Torah at face value, but should seek to
understand it for themselves. That is how Torah becomes internalized. The
deeper we plunge its depth, the more connected we become with its “Author”.
The
light of Chanukah is reflective of the deep internal light of Hashem’s Torah.
It’s a time to re-dedicate ourselves to - not as much Torah learning, as much
Torah studying and internalizing.
Freilichen
Zos Chanukah Sameiach,
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
R’ Dani and Chani Staum