[Avodah] Who is a Talmid Chacham

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 09:14:22AM +0100, Chana Luntz 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...

I don't think the comparison holds.

Generating wealth is a matter of accomplishment.

The avodah is transcendence, not accomplishment. Lefum tza'arah agra.
The goal of life isn't where the person gets to, but how far he's moved.

Or IOW, "more valuable" has different answers in a judgment that involves
more than one dimension.

This is why I wanted to distinguish between how much HQBH values someone's
learning with our obligation of kibud TC. The latter could well be about
accomplishment. Particularly if we are honoring the Torah the person
knows and what they became a symbol of more than their own worth.

Besides, HQBH might know worth, but we can't anyway. One person might work
harder to get to the same knowledge of a Qetzos or a Rashi on Chumash. And
one person might work harder to sit in front of a seifer for 10 min than
another to sit for 10 hours. We can't know others' abilities and what
is going on in their heads. Assessing based on effort is impossible,
even if we really were called to honor based on it.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             "As long as the candle is still burning,
micha at aishdas.org        it is still possible to accomplish and to
http://www.aishdas.org   mend."
Fax: (270) 514-1507          - Anonymous shoemaker to R' Yisrael Salanter