[Avodah] Talmud Torah

[Daniel Israel]

Chana Luntz wrote:
> If your father asked you for a
> glass of water but you had to do something else first, you would still
> spend the whole time thinking and worrying about getting your father
> that water and it would certainly weigh on your mind (ie kind of like
> RMF's reference to focus of your life). But you are still supposed to go
> off and do the other mitzvos and all the other things you have to do.

A similar thought that was mentioned to me by a certain frum scientist 
in Yerushalayim (and I mention it here not because it is in any sense 
authoritative enough to settle the argument, but because it is a very 
clear way of expressing the point):

One needs to make one's limud torah the ikar, and other stuff (he was 
talking about parnasa) the tafel.  But in hilchos brachos we find that 
the ikar is not always the rov.

-- 
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu