[Avodah] Who is a Talmid Chacham

[Rich, Joel]

> 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... 

[Micha:]
> I don't think the comparison holds. 

> Generating wealth is a matter of accomplishment. 

I usually answer this with the following: 

Imagine a parent had twins who he sent out on their own missions --
the first he gave $1000 and told him to invest it as best he could
and return it with the investment income in a year, the second he gave
$1,000,000 and gave him the same charge. In a year the first came back
with investment income of $1000 and the second with $100,000. Objectively
to the outsider looking at the check with the investment income, the
first only had investment income of $1000 and the second did much better
with $100,000. The wise father would realize however that the first had
ROI of 100% while the second had ROI of only 10%. Hameivin Yavin.

KT 
Joel Rich