[Avodah] Who is a Talmid Chacham

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 03:24:18PM -0400, Zev Sero wrote:
> What other criterion could there be?  Is one person's learning of a
> shverer ketzos more valuable than another person's learning of chumash,
> if that's what he's up to?  By what standard?

It seems to me that the gemara can't share this definition.

Eg Shabbos 11a quotes a beraisa that says that Chaveirim have to stop
learning to lein Q"Sh, in contrast to the mishnah there. R' Yochanan
explains the mishnah refers to Rashbi veChaveirav, who are patur from
QS -- shetorasan umenasan. But this isn't true of most of Chazal, as R'
Yochanan continues, "aval anu"! And yet chazal are called talmidei
chakhamim. (By the Bavli. The Y-mi is more literal: chakhamim are
chakhamim; talmidei chakhamim are their students. I am guessing this has
to do with the lack of true semichah in Bavel, so that no one actually
graduates. But I'm just guessing.)

Along these lines, RHS limits the concept of toraso umenaso as a petur to
those people who wouldn't stop learning to take care of their own bills.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Good decisions come from experience;
micha at aishdas.org        Experience comes from bad decisions.
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