[Avodah] TIDE, Rabbeinu Tam style

[Micha Berger]

A sichah by RYAmital recently sent out by Gush pointed to Hagahos Maimonios
Hil TT 3:2. The Rambam there is the famous bit raised whenever we discuss
kollel.

The HM quotes Rabbeinu Tam that "X im Y" means "with Y, the iqar, there
is also X". E.g. "Yechlequ yoreshei habaal im yoreshei ha'av", and
many other examples. Such that here, R' Tam holds that "derekh eretz"
is the iqar, and it is yafeh to have some learning with it.

Rabbeinu Elchanan (who I believe is another baal Tosefos) says the
more obvious -- that Torah is the iqar, and relates it to "harishonim
asu Torasam qeva umelakhtam arai."

I could see two ways of understanding Rabbeinu Tam:

1- In the same terms as R' Elchanan. DE means parnasah, and iqar means
which gets more time. In this understanding, R' Tam would still be saying
that Torah outranks DE, but lemaaseh most of one's day goes to parnasah.

2- DE is meant in the sense of middos, like DE qodmah laTorah. In which
case, R' Tam could really being saying that DE is the iqar, not just
in time.

After all, the self-description of the first chapter of the Gra's "Even
Sheleimah" is "Explaining all the ways of breaking the middos ra'os in
general, for that is the shoresh of all of avodas H' yisbarakh."

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
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