[Avodah] Torah Study vs. other contributions to society

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, April 25, 2007 3:38 pm, Rn Ilana Sober wrote:
: 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.

Mordechai dealt with this question. I do not think harbei shelichim
laMaqom is the lesson I would take from "mi yodei'ah im la'eis kazos
higat lamalkhus". Harbei shelichim laMaqom is descriptive, not
prescriptive. All else being equal, we should try to be that shaliach.

The truth is that my decision to invest time in limudei chol has to
depend on issues like whether I value TIDE, whether I agree with
RSRH's assessment that he had a chiyuv to enjoy the beauty Hashem gave
the Alps, whether I believe in TuM, etc...

That's a totally different question than trying to understanding
Hashem's decision to make this genius a tinoq shenishba who is never
put in a situation that would spawn a temptation toward learning, and
that less bright individual given every chance to see Torah's beauty
and thus it likely he would choose to learn more.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter