[Avodah] Torah Study vs. other contributions to society

[Ilana Sober]

RMB: I'm reminded of the story (urban legend) of R' Chaim Brisker bemoaning
the fact that Einstein didn't go into learning. However, one wonders
how differently WWII would have ended had relativity been discovered a
couple of decades later, and the US didn't get the bomb.

I am wondering if this is a fair question. Can't we say - harbeh shlichim
lamakom - if the US hadn't gotten the bomb, HKBH would have engineered the
end of the war differently. Perhaps, in an alternate history, the Allies
would have won without killing so many Japanese in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I agree with the basic premise that many Jews who did not go into learning
have made great contributions in other fields - whether to humanity in
general or on a smaller scale to their own patients, clients, students, etc.

- Ilana