[Avodah] Who is a Talmid Chacham

[Joel C. Salomon]

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 4:14 AM, Chana Luntz <Chana at kolsassoon.org.uk> wrote:
> 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.

Valuable to whom? "HKBH liba ba'i" with respect to individual merit,
but the Jewish community gets more benefit from the chiddushim and
teachings of the gadol. In the context of communal merit too, the
learning of a teacher or future teacher is the better investment; the
Chumash-learner's merit will protect his generation; the future
teacher's will do the same and his student will protect the next.

—J. Chesky