[Avodah] Who is a Talmid Chacham

[Chana Luntz]

RZS writes:

>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?

Just an addendum to my post of yesterday, I would just point out, on a more
philosophical note, that this idea of "Is one person's learning of a shverer
ketzos more valuable than another person's learning of Chumash?" is what
might be described as the communist strand of Jewish thinking - ie, the
lowly factory worker's contribution is just as great, and needs to be
treated as just as great, as that of the factory boss.  Indeed the lowly
factory worker's contribution may be greater, as he may have to overcome all
sorts of internal hurdles to work at all (such as not being very smart), and
so they should be paid and treated at least equally.

Similarly the Chumash learning of Yankel Shmerel might be just as valuable
if not more valuable than the chiddushim of [insert your favourite gadol
here], and we dare not value or prioritize in any way the one over the
other.

It is only if you follow this communist strand of thinking that you then end
up with:

>The entire debate only makes sense if one starts with the premise that
Torah learning is useless, that its defensive power
is a fiction conveniently invented by the charedim, whose real motive for
not serving is cowardice and/or treason

That is true if all Torah learning is of equal weight.  But if, for example,
the chiddishim of gadol A are understood to have tremendous defensive power,
and the learning of Yankel Shmerele does little, (ie the factory boss
legitimately earns millions, and is fair that the lowly factory worker gets
the minimum wage, as that is commiserate to his contribution to society)
then you would not think twice about drafting Yankel Shmerele, as his
physical contribution in the army might well be a bigger help than any day
he sat in the beis medrish, no matter how hard he tried there, while you
would not dream of drafting a young Ovadiah Yosef (who by 18 was Rav in
Cairo already, and unquestionably fulfilled the Rema's list of requirements
for a talmid chacham), because *his* Torah would pack a hefty defensive
punch.

So, perhaps one could better phrase the debate as - is G-d a communist or a
meritocrat?

-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful

Regards

Chana