[Avodah] More on Mitzvos and Iyun

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 08:26:17 -0400, R Daniel Eidensohn <yadmoshe at 012.net.il> wrote:
> One of my rebbeim explained the above. If a person truly learns lishmah
> than he does not sin and obviously his middos are perfected. However the
> actual practical lishmah simply means one is not learning for the sake
> of obvious reward or titles.....

As already noted, I didn't actually mean that abstract gemara study has
no impact on the student. Rather, it has no /rational/ connection to the
refinement of the neshamah.

I would therefore only agree to a relative version of RDE's recollection of
his rebbe's words. Someone who learns less lishmah, or not lishmah at all,
will see only tiny changes in his middos compared to someone who learns more
lishmah.

Of course, to a Litvak, lishmah means lesheim sheleimus as an eved Hashem,
and to someone like myself who tries to have a mussar orientation, this in
turn means acquiring the middos of an eved Hashem. So, in my own definition
set, the previous paragraph is simply:
Somone who learns consciously trying to shteig in AYH will shteig more than
someone who doesn't.

Not much of a chiddush.

I am also reminded of the line said besheim the Alter of Slabodka (among
others). A student took pride in making a siyum hashas. IIRC, his third.
He came to the Alter asking for a mazal tov -- he had been through Shas 3
times! (Again, IIRC.) The Alter replied: That's how many times you have
been through Shas. How many times has Shas been through you?

Truth of the tale, the identification of its protagonist, or other details,
the point is one does not imply the other.

:-)|,|ii!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where
micha at aishdas.org        you are,  or what you are doing,  that makes you
http://www.aishdas.org   happy or unhappy. It's what you think about.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                        - Dale Carnegie