[Avodah] Only Through Torah Learning

Thu Jun 23 13:56:32 PDT 2016

On Thu, Jun 23, 2016 at 07:19:51PM +0000, Professor L. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: The following is from Rav Schwab on Prayer page 300 where he comments
: on v'ychad levavainu l'ahavah u'l'yereh shmecha which we say in the
: bracha before Krias Shema.

: The combination of ahavas Hashem and yiras Hashem can be achieved
: only through learning Torah...

Rav Shimon Shkop writes:
    The first Tablets were made by G-d, like the body of writing as
    explained in the Torah. The latter Tablets were made by man [Moses],
    as it says "Carve for yourself two stone tablets." (Exodus 34:1)
    Tablets are things which cause standing and existence, that it's not
    "letters fluttering in the air." Since they were made by Hashem,
    they would stand eternally. But the second ones, which were man-made,
    only exist subject to conditions and constraints.

    The beginning of the receiving of the Torah through Moses was a
    symbol and sign for all of the Jewish people who receive the Torah
    [since]. Just as Hashem told Moses, "Carve for yourself two stone
    Tablets", so too it is advice for all who receive the Torah. Each
    must prepare Tablets for himself, to write upon them the word of
    Hashem. According to his readiness in preparing the Tablets, so will
    be his ability to receive. If in the beginning or even any time after
    that his Tablets are ruined, then his Torah will not remain. This
    removes much of Moses' fear, because according to the value and
    greatness of the person in Awe/Fear of Hashem and in middos, which
    are the Tablet of his heart, this will be the measure by which heaven
    will give him acquisition of Torah. And if he falls from his level,
    by that amount he will forget his Torah, just as our sages said of a
    number of things that cause Torah to be forgotten. About this great
    concept our sages told us to explain the text at the conclusion of
    the Torah, "and all the great Awe Inspiring acts which Moses wrought
    before the eyes of all of Israel." (Devarim 34:12, the closing words
    of the Torah)

This is in a long Litvisher tradition that yir'as Shamayim is a
precondition t being able to learn. Not, as Rav Schwap is quoted here,
a consequence. Although a positive feedback cycle is certainly a
possibility. For example, from Nefesh haChaim 4:5:

    According to the vast arrangement of the silo of yir'ah that the
    person prepared for himself, it is through that arrangement that the
    grain of Torah will be able to enter and be protected within him,
    according to how much he strengthened his silo.

    It is [like] a father who divides grain for his sons. He divides
    and gives each one a measure of grain to match what the son's silo
    can hold, which he [the son] prepared beforehand. For even if the
    father wishes and his hand is open to give him more, the son cannot
    receive more since his silo is not big enough to hold more. So too
    the father cannot now give him more. And if the son did not prepare
    even a small silo, then also the father can not give him anything
    at all for he has no guarded place where it will remain with him.

    So too Hashem, may His name be blessed: His "Hand" is open, as it
    were, to constantly bestow every person according to his reward with
    much wisdom and extra understanding when it will be preserved by
    them and will be tied onto the slate of their hearts. Everything
    [is given] according to the volume of one's "silo." And if a person
    does not prepare even a small silo, which is that he does not,
    heaven forbid, have within him any yir'ah whatsoever for Him,
    may He be blessed, so too He, may He be blessed, will not bestow
    any wisdom at all, since it will not be preserved by him. For his
    Torah would become disgusting, heaven forbid, as our Rabbis, whose
    memories are a blessing, said. It is about this that the verse says,
    "the beginning of wisdom is yir'as Hashem," (Tehillim 111).

This relates directly to another post of yours of quotes from RSoP.
"Rav Shimon Schwab on Women Learning Torah", thread at http://j.mp/28Q172y
(or http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/getindex.cgi?section=R#RAV%20SHIMON%20SCHWAB%20ON%20WOMEN%20LEARNING%20TORAH )

In Feb you wrote:
> The following is from pages 274 - 275 of Rav Schwab on Chumash.
...
> A woman who learns Torah does not become greater in yiras Shamayim
> because of it. True, she may become very learned in Torah, but this is
> not the object of talmud Torah. A woman may become a great philosopher
> or scientist, but Torah is not philosophy or science. Torah is the way
> Hakadosh Baruch Hu communicates with us.

> Only because talmud Torah is a mitzvah, a positive commandment for man,
> can it be a means to connect to Hashem and thereby increase his yiras
> Shamayim. Because a woman has no specific mitzvah of talmud Torah, she
> cannot utilize it as a means to increase her many ways of connection
> to Hashem.

And at some point I wrote:
> I realize I do not have clarity on what RSS is referring to when he says
> "yir'as Shamayim".

> To the Ramchal is means by default yir'as hacheit, which in turn means
> fear of doing the wrong thing because it's against His Will. (In contrast
> to yir'as ha'onesh, fear of the sin's punishment, which is not real
> yir'as Shamayim.) According to the Ramchal, also included in yir'ah is
> yir'as haromemus. But those are all feelings. How could we make a blanket
> statement ike "women do not learn to fear sinning or how awe-inspiring
> G-d is by learning Torah"? (Whereas men can, or in True Scotsman style:
> If a man didn't gain yir'as Shamayim, it wasn't *really* learning.)

> So it seems to me RSS is speaking about something more specific. Perhaps
> a relationship with ol mitzvos, which is why it is only generated by
> a metzuvah ve'oseh performance. But even that would be iffy, because a
> person can learn an emotional stance by imagining what it would be like
> if... So that by learning, if the woman could empathetically imagine
> what it would be like to be a man and compelled to learn as a mitzvah
> in itself, wouldn't she still learn the yir'ah behind ol mitzvos?

Now, that theory too has to be scrubbed. It looks like RSS is speakiong
very speicifcally about fulfilling an obligation of talmud Torah. It's
not a function of obligation in general (pg 300) nor of talmd Torah
without the chiyuv (pg 274).

So I REALLY have no clarity.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Live as if you were living already for the
micha at aishdas.org        second time and as if you had acted the first
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Fax: (270) 514-1507            - Victor Frankl, Man's search for Meaning