[Avodah] is hachana worth it??

[Micha Berger]

On Fri, Sep 09, 2011 at 01:25:35PM -0700, Harvey Benton wrote:
: 3 hours before davening.....

They spent three hours: 1 hour prep before davening, 1 hour davening,
1 hour after.

Before you are overwhelmed by that prep time... Yamim Noraim are
coming. Many shuls spend at least one hour in pre-Amidah davening on Yom
Kippur. Doing this three times a day is amazing, but not incomprehensibly
so. The other two elements -- saying Shemoneh Esrei for an hour without
their minds drifting and requiring an hour to get their minds back into
the regular world -- I find far harder to imagine.

R' Aryeh Kaplan notes that with today's nusachos, spending an hour on
Shemoneh Esrei comes to something like 7 sec per word. Trying to just
say birkhas Avos (for which kavanah is most required) at that pace is
more like meditation than anything we usually do for davening.

: was this hachana better than learning (midoraisa vs. midora-
: bonnan??)

I think there is one of two possible misconceptions here:

Saying that talmud Torah (or tzitzis or yishuv Eretz Yisrael or bikurim)
is keneged kulam doesn't mean it's the best way to spend every hour. That
would be like making a meal of steak without drinks, side dishes, spices /
gravy, etc...

Second, there is no one Jewish ideal. We aren't all supposed to have the
same priorities. These were Chassidim haRishonim, they pursued the ideal
of chassidus. Chokhmah is a different ideal.

See my blog entry
<http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2007/10/anger-and-the-golden-mean.shtml>
where I discuss the contrast the Rambam makes in Hilkhos Dei'os between
the chokham (who always pursues the middle among middos) and the chassid
(who at times goes beyond).

And in my earlier post at
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol27/v27n122.shtml#04>, I noted the
Rambam's possible maqor, Shabbos 125a:
    A beraisa was repeated before Rava bar Rav Huna: Someone who kills
    snakes or scorpions on Shabbos, the spirit of chasidim are not
    content with him. He said to him: And those chasidim, the spirit of
    chakhamim are not content with them.

About which I conjectured:
> This in turn might be related to the Chassidim haRishonim and their
> initial refusal to fight with the Makabiim on Shabbos (Makkabiim I 2:39),
> although they did later join (v. 43).
...
> ...           [T]he defining feature of a Chassid wasn't only his
> davening 9 hours a day, or his shemiras Shabbos. It was also his concern
> for others, "The early Chassidim would hide their thorns and broken
> pieces of glass in the middle of their fields 3 tefachim [roughly one
> foot] deep, so that it would not [even] stop the plowing." (BQ 30a)

> It appears the Chassidim haRishonim and the Rambam Hil Dei'os were
> describing the same ideal.

There is also the possibility that the preparation and ramp-down time
/was/ spent learning, although that doesn't fit Berakhos 39b (to which
RZS already referred) very well. "But once they rest for nine hours
per day in prayer, their Torah, how was it preserved, and their work,
how was it done?"

The gemara answers, "Only, since they were chassidim, their Torah was
guarded and their work blessed." Notice this isn't necessarily phrased
as through Hashem aided their Torah study. It could well mean that since
they were chassidim, they cherished every word, and that motivated them
in a way that more got through in less time.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             A sick person never rejects a healing procedure
micha at aishdas.org        as "unbefitting." Why, then, do we care what
http://www.aishdas.org   other people think when dealing with spiritual
Fax: (270) 514-1507      matters?              - Rav Yisrael Salanter