[Avodah] AishDas and Mussar

[Shoshana L. Boublil]

> Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2007 15:48:42 -0400 (EDT)
> From: "Micha Berger" <micha at aishdas.org>
> Subject: Re: [Avodah] AishDas and Mussar
> To: "A High-Level Torah Discussion Group" <avodah at lists.aishdas.org>
> Message-ID:
> <27997.171.159.192.10.1174938522.squirrel at webmail.aishdas.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
>
> On Mon, March 26, 2007 1:28 pm, Rt Shoshana L. Boublil wrote:
> : (I'm sorry I missed the 'forks' post...).
>
> "Forks" refers to an article by RYGB (I believe in the Jewish Observer) 
> that
> has been discussed here so many times so as to get its own nickname. See
> <http://www.aishdas.org/rygb/forks.htm>.

Thank you, I truly enjoyed reading it -- and seeing just how much Sephardi 
Derech is different from what's described in "forkes".<g>

> The basic fork, as a one-liner:
> Litta defines man's tafqid as sheleimus ha'adam
> Chassidus, as deveiqus baH'.

> The idea happens to also recur on my blog at
> <http://www.aishdas.org/asp/category/forks>.

Which I also enjoyed, and which also showed me where the Sephardi Derech, 
especially as followed by the great rabbis of North Africa and Saloniki 
etc., and the Gedolim who studied at Porat Yosef in Jerusalem - all defer 
from what is shown in these 2 articles.

> : Active Sephardic communities?  All over Israel.
>
> : They have their own Yeshivot and their own derech which is NOT the 
> Litvische
> : derech.
>
> Derekh halimud or machashavah? I assume you mean both. But I would love to 
> see
> a developed presentation of the essance of avodas Hashem, what is man's
> tafqid, from any of the Sepharadi points of view.

I would like to mention here some items, told to me by my husband and 
members of his family, in honor of his uncle R' Meredech as he was called --  
Rav Mordechai Chozez ZT"L a true Lamed Vavnik who passed away last week.

One of the memories everyone shared was R' Meredech gathering the kids and 
learning with them on the roof, at night.  He would teach and the mothers 
would bring candies and goodies and beverages and make much of the kids who 
had stayed up and learned.

R' Meredech worked most of his life as a tailor, but he was also the rabbi 
of the Libyan community in Yaffo for over 50 years.  It was during his 
Shiv'a when questions keep coming up -- and no R' Meredech was available to 
answer them, that his loss was truly felt, and the community began to come 
to grips with his passing.

His daughters told of how he sat at the Shabbat table teaching, and how they 
looked fwd to that special time.  But it was how he, and others like him 
taught that was so special.

My husband recalls sitting, as a child, in a g'mara class given by Rav 
Chamos Agiv ZT"L.  They started by reading from the g'mara, and then R' Agiv 
told them to close it -- and to give their own thoughts: their questions, 
their understanding, their ideas.  Common sense was the rule of the day. 
And then, when they had finished discussing and the children opened the 
G'mara once again, he would praise the children who raised thoughts and 
ideas brought in the G'mara, telling such a child: "you are a Tanna;  You 
are an Amora" -- and when the child would say "no" the rabbi would say --  
yes, you thought of an idea that the Tanna or Amora presented.  You are like 
them.  But when an idea that was against common sense, against reason, 
contra to real life was presented, the Rav would ask: if you were in a 
commercial meeting and you raised such an idea -- would they want to do 
business with you?  Did your idea make sense?  Think!

It is just this attitude that brought my husband, when he was 11 years old, 
to start lecturing from the Bimah in his shul -- b/c he had so many 
questions, so his father sent him to learn and ask and speak from the Bimah 
to all those present in shul instead of just continuing to ask.

Sephardi teaching emphasized knowledge of Tanach, the rabbis would regularly 
quote from all parts of the Tanach, and the students were expected to know 
the sources (not from the G'mara page....).  It emphasized learning Halacha, 
but in a different way.  That is why davka a student of the Yeshivat Porat 
Yosef, Rav Chaim David HaLevy wrote a sefer halacha "Makor Chaim" -- which 
contains an introduction of Machshava to every section of Halacha.  Learning 
Halacha without Machshava was considered wrong and dangerous:  "We don't 
want to raise murderers who can quote halacha..." (from another Rav).

In the article in Aspaqlaria, the question is raised what is HitHaLech 
Lefanay VeHeye Tamim means/teaches.  what is "Tamim".  Tamim, in Sephardi 
thought is something achieved many times by the regular Jew, whose "insides" 
and "outsides" are the same, who follows Halacha b/c Hashem said to do so. 
It is a different kind of wholeness.  And yet, this same simple Jew will 
spend as much time as he can, whenever he can, learning Shas and Poskim and 
Shut, after working for a living; on Shabbat; when he leaves for his 
pension.  [I'll try to get back to this after Pesach to give a better 
definition]. In general, there was no split between the intellect and the 
emotions, you were supposed to work with both at the same time as you 
learned.  That is why most of the teaching was filled with tales, not like 
the Chassidic tales, but more like those found in the G'mara that teach one 
to act in a way that emulates how Hashem is, that brings halacha to life.

It is among the Sephardi Gedolim that you see that there was no split 
between Deveikut and Sheleimut as presented in the above 2 articles.  The 
Gadol was the Dayan, the Poseik, but also the "Anshei CHeN" an acronym for 
"Chochmat HaNistar" - the one people went to when they had problems of the 
kind that we see Chassidim bringing to their Rebbes.  But, for Sephardim, he 
wasn't a Rebbe as defined by classical chassidut.  He was the Chacham, the 
"Respected", the "Elder", who would dispense advice to anyone who came to 
his door, who was noted for his tzniut, for his connection with the simple 
man, despite his Gadlut BaTorah.

To this day, despite his age, Rav Ovadia Yosef, another graduate of Porat 
Yosef Yeshiva, will accept anyone who wants to see him and listen to their 
questions and answer them.  You don't need a special "proteksia" to get in 
to see him.  His lectures are filled with halacha and machshava and tales, 
all as parts of the same wholeness of Torah.

It is this type of man that Rav Meredech was.  A modest man and a Gadol 
BaTorah. A teacher and one who gave support to many.

Yehi Zichro Baruch.

Shoshana L. Boublil