[Avodah] Avodah] Who is a Talmid Chacham

[Zev Sero]

On 28/06/2012 6:15 PM, Chana Luntz wrote:
> RZS, in his previous posts appeared to be saying the latter - ie the hard
> work put in by somebody with a low IQ counts just as much as that of the
> greatest gadol, and actual output is irrelevant.

The definition of Torah lishmah is that there is no "output".  If you're
digging holes for a purpose then the value of your work is measured by
how many holes you produce; but if you're just doing it for exercise then
you can just dig the same hole and fill it in again, over and over, and
you've achieved every bit as much as if you'd dug up a whole field.  Of
course if you do dig up a field then you've also benefited the farmer; if
you come up with moreh'dike chidushim then you benefit klal yisroel for
generations to come.  But that isn't the point of the learning, it's only
a side benefit.  Hence "echad hamarbeh ve'echad hamam'it", because the
zechus of limud hatorah is the same.  For that matter, not to get personal,
but a woman who is mechadesh chidushim and is mezakeh the whole world is
still an einah metzuvah, and has less zechus *for her limud itself* than
a poshuter yid who learns chumash.


> Echad hamarbeh ve'echad hamam'it is learnt from the poor person's korban
> versus the rich person's (see Menachos 110a).
>
> Note however that this concept actually contradicts the idea that what
> counts is the time spent in hard work - ie the amount of ameilus a person
> puts in, because what it appears to say is that if one gets to the same
> point, it doesn't matter whether one takes a long time or short time, it is
> the result that counts

I don't understand what you're saying.  Echad hamarbeh ve'echad hamam'it
doesn't mean one who puts in more or less effort.  It's one who brings
more or less.  The whole point is that Hashem values what it cost you,
the effort and sacrifice, not the value of what you brought.  If a few
greens are a more meaningful sacrifice for you than a fat bull is for
the rich man, then your greens outweigh his bull on the Heavenly scale.


-- 
Zev Sero        "Natural resources are not finite in any meaningful
zev at sero.name    economic sense, mind-boggling though this assertion
                  may be. The stocks of them are not fixed but rather
		 are expanding through human ingenuity."
		                            - Julian Simon