[Avodah] What are the main mitzvos to focus on?

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Dec 07, 2017 at 11:42:27PM -0500, Alexander Seinfeld via Avodah wrote:
::: So basically you are saying that the current Charedi hashkafa/lifestyle of
::: Torah only and Torah learning being the ultimate purpose of life is not a
::: majority opinion in Chazal and in fact you can't find anyone among Chazal
::: who says this.

:: I intentionally avoided stating it that confrontationally, but yes.

: Forgive me, this may be a side issue to your main point about the 2
: ways/reasons to learn, but I feel it should be clarified what you mean.

: How do you understand the Shulchan Aruch - Orach Chaim 155-156 - go
: immediately from davening to learning, make Torah your ikkar and malacha
: your arai; minimize work to only what you need [Be¹er Heiteiv, Mishna
: Berura] not more???

You are shifting topics. I wrote about the reasons to learn, and asserted
"Torah only and Torah learning being the ultimate purpose of life...
you can't find anyone among Chazal who says this."

Torah learning should well be the anchor of your day in comparison to
earning a parnasah. (Although if one is learning rather than going to
teach, other mitzvos are dochim.) But not as an ends, as a means.

The hashkafah is new, the priorities not. But the new hashkafah changes
the weighting to be even more in favor of learning.

For example: I don't know what's going on today, but in my day Neir
Yisrael / Baltimore was unique among American "yeshivish" yeshivos
in encouraging talmidim to volunteer to staff kiruv shabbatonim.
(Most/all YU RY were very proactively pro becoming an NCSY advisor.)
The others felt that at this time in their lives, bachurim shouldn't
be distracted from learning. This, despite the fact that adolescents
respond better if there are peer-teachers rather than full grownups of
a different generation, and the program was begging for them. This is
one of the reasons JEP failed.

That's the worldview of the American and Israeli "Litvisher" yeshiva.
Now let's look at actual pre-war Litvisher gedolim. And I don't mean
the obvious mussarists. `Would the aforementioned Meshekh Chokhmah have
agreed with this decision? Is it in concert with RCV's admonition to
his son? What about R' Shimon Shkop, who opens Shaarei Yosher's
haqdamah with (empshasis added):

    Yisbarakh HaBorei Veyis'alah HaYotzeir
    who created us in His "Image" and in the likeness of His "Structure"
    VECHAYEI OLAM NATA BESOKHAINU
    such that our greated desire should be to benefit others
    to the indivindual and the masses,
    now and in the future,
    in imitation of the Creator (kevayachol).

Ikkar doesn't mean "ultimate purpose", and making learning one's ultimate
purpose does push one to go beyond making it the day's ikkar.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Brains to the lazy
micha at aishdas.org        are like a torch to the blind --
http://www.aishdas.org   a useless burden.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                 - Bechinas haOlam