[Avodah] R Asher Weis on Torah leShmah

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Jun 13, 2018 at 03:51:17PM -0400, Micha Berger wrote:
: <https://en.tvunah.org/2018/06/12/learning-torah-lshma>...
: R' Asher Weiss give a nice survey of opinions about what the "lishmah"
: of "Torah lishmah" means.
...
:> Defining Lishmo -- Three Opinions
:> 
:> We find throughout the generations what seem to be three differing
:> opinions as to the definition of Lishmo.
:> 
:>     1. The opinion of the Ba'al Shem Tov, as seems clear from the opinion
:>     of one of his major disciples[26] and from two disciples of subsequent
:>     generations[27] is that Lishmo means that one has intent purely to
:>     fulfil the will of Hashem. Due to this, the early Chassidic practice
:>     was to stop in the middle of learning in order to refocus one's mind
:>     on this thought.
:> 
:>     2. Rav Chaim Volozhiner writes[28] that it is improper to be pausing
:>     in the middle of learning. Furthermore, we say lishmah, not lishmo
:>     [for "its" sake, not "for His sake"]. Rather, says Rav Chaim,
:>     one should have intent solely to understand the Torah which one is
:>     learning. This is also the understanding of the Chasam Sofer.[29]
:> 
:>     3. The Reishis Chochmah[30] and the Shlah[31] writes that Lishmoh
:>     means for the sake of the mitzvos -- commandments. One needs to
:>     learn in order to know what to do. Accordingly, the word lishmah
:>     is to be understood as the feminine singular -- for her sake --
:>     i.e. for the sake of the mitzvah -- commandment. This is similar
:>     with the requirement stated in the Yerushalmi[32] that one must
:>     learn Torah in order to fulfil it.
:> 
:> Support for these Positions
:> 
:> All three of these opinions seem to have a basis in the words of the
:> Rishonim.
:> 
:>     1. Rav Chaim Volozhiner quotes the Rosh[33] as his source. The Gemara
:>     in Nedarim states as follows: Asei dervarim lesheim pa'alan vedabeir
:>     bahen lishman, which the Rosh explains as follows: "Perform the
:>     commandments for the sake of Hashem, and learn Torah for its own sake,
:>     that is, to know and to understand and to increase one's knowledge."
:> 
:>     2. The Mefaresh[34] had a different text in this Gemara, and his text
:>     reads, vedaveir bahen lesheim shamayim-- learn Torah for the sake
:>     of Heaven. This is also seems to have been the text of the Rambam,
:>     for he writes[35] that Lishmo is when one learns Torah purely out
:>     of love for Hashem. This would seem to indicate like the opinion of
:>     the Ba'al Shem Tov.
:> 
:>     3. In support of the opinion of the Reishis Chochmah, both Rashi[36]
:>     and Tosfos[37] write that Lishmo means in order to act.

Along the lines of #3, Yesushalmi Beraikha 1:1 (vilna 1a), Shabbos 1:2 (vilna
7b):
    One who learns but not in order to do, would have been pleasanter
    that his umbilical cord would have prolapsed in front of his face
    and he never came into the world.

The Meshekh Chokhmah, Devarim 28:61, explains this in terms of the idea
that the soul learns Torah with a mal'akh before birth. Someone who
wants to learn as an end in itself would have been better off staying
with that mal'akh! And (citing the intro to Qorban Aharon) a soul that
was not born is a seikhel nivdal who grasped his Creator. All that is
being given up by being born. But, if one is learning al menas laasos,
which one can only do after birth, then their birth had value.

The other opinion in the Y-mi is that someone who is lomei shelo al means
lelameid is better off not existing. Again, the MC, notes, because the
point of learning is to bring it into the world. The MC also gets this
from Sanhedrin 99b, where the gemara concludes that "adam la'amal yulad"
is for amal peh -- speaking Torah.

While the gemara doesn't say al menas lelameid is a definiition of
lishmah, the transitive property would lead me to conclude that's the
implication. Al menas and lishmah... can they be distinguished?

And if not
4. Al menas laasos.

(I have discussed this MC before. He ends up showing that in terms of
priorities, one who is going somewhere to teach doesn't have to stop to
do mitzvos maasiyos; but someoen who is actually learning (and not teaching)
has to stop even for a hakhsher mitzvah (maasis). This is one of my
favorite shtiklach; worth a look!

(There is a complete copy with a bad translation scattered among
<http://www.aishdas.org/asp/learning-and-teaching>.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The waste of time is the most extravagant
micha at aishdas.org        of all expense.
http://www.aishdas.org                           -Theophrastus
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