[Avodah] Seclusion is not the Jewish Way

[Yitzchok Levine]

RSRH in his commentary on Bereishis 5: 4-27 writes in part:

Hisbodidus, secluding oneself from others, is not the Jewish way. Our
Tzadikim and Chassidim lived among the masses, with the masses, and for the
masses; they considered it their mission to lift the masses up to them.
Abandonment of the masses — mesushelach— is symptomatic of a generation’s
sickness; it is found in an age in which the concept of God is
reduced to a subject for theoretical speculation, and where the thought
of God makes men into fanatics, drives them to eschew and escape life
because they fear its temptations or — in blind arrogance — disdain
its problems. The Torah opposes ascetic seclusion, which is based on
the erroneous notion that godliness lies outside the sphere of ordinary
life.

In the case of Chanoch, however, this “walking with
God” was the whole essence of his life. His walking with God did not
draw him near to life; it led him away from life. This is a misguided
aspiration, which at best does nothing to better the world, is quite useless
to the world.

I have posted the entire commentary on this topic at

http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/chanoch_isolation.pdf

It seems to me that what Rav Hirsch writes here 
fits well with what I sent out yesterday about education and isolation.

Yitzchok Levine 
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