[Avodah] Rashbi and full time learning

[Micha Berger]

WRT the famous machloqes R' Shimon bar Yochai and R' Yishmael about
getting a job (Berashos 35b)...

The Y-mi Maaseros 2:4 (vilna 11a) has: Tani R' Shim'on bar Yochai says:
See how much the Torah was diqdiqah in gezel, that it requires [WRT lo
sachsom] that he only eat while he is still swinging the sickle. From this
-- great is work for the dor hamabul was only destroyed because of gezel.

RYGB in his MP3 daf yomi shiur cites the Sedei Chemed, vav #15, who
comments on this setirah. (Or, as the Y-mi would phrase it, "Machlefah
shitasei deR' Shimon ben Yochai".) I found it in II pg 289, but the
whole machloqes gets richer when you see the kelal in its entirety.
R' Yishmael also requires resolution with other quotes, etc..

The SC says that Rashbi only held of Torah only when he left the cave the
first time. Then he looked up, killed someone, went back in for a year --
where he learned a derekh of fusing Torah into olam hazeh. The gemara
in Berakhos is quoting Rashbi after the first departure from the case,
but the Y-mi has Rashbi after the 2nd departure from the cave. And thus
Rashbi's final masqanah is the same as R' Yishma'el's -- go get a job!

While dealing with this sugya and setiros, here's another one.

R' Meir says in the mishnah on Qiddushin 82a that a person must teach his
son umenus neqiyah veqalah. The gemara on that mishnah quotes R' Nehorai,
"I put to rest all the professions of the world, and I do not teach my
son anything but Torah."

However, we know from Eruvin 13b that R' Meir was a complementary
nickname for being "meir einei chakhamim", and that his real name was R'
Nehorai. Both quotes are from the same tanna!

The Brisker Rav (heard third hand) explains this based on the machloqes
Rashbi and R' Yishmael. The rabbim can't live like Rashbi, Torah only.
Therefore as a kelal, R' Meir says that "le'olam yilmod adam". However,
R' Nehorai's own son was one of the yechidei segulah for whom Torah only
is appropriate.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             I thank God for my handicaps, for, through them,
micha at aishdas.org        I have found myself, my work, and my God.
http://www.aishdas.org                - Helen Keller
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