[Avodah] Learning is Good

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jul 30, 2023 at 08:54:51PM -0500, Brent Kaufman wrote:
> [Micha, paraphrasing the Meshekh Chokhmah:]
>> The last 8 pesuqim are subject to a
>> machloqes as to whether Yehoshu wrote them down because they are not
>> part of the Torah, they are a codicil required for a Sefer Torah to
>> be kosher the way the kelaf is.

> This certainly goes against the Rambam's 13 Ikarim....

This is the author of the Or Sameiach we're talking about. I doubt R
Meir Simchah haKohein simply ignored the Rambam.

Here is how I understood him... The MC had a gemara which had a machloqes
about who wrote the last 8 pesuqim. And he EMBRACED the Rambam's last iqar.

So you have a choice:
You could reject the iqar, or modify it to include a single episode with
Yehoshua during the shiv'ah for MRAH.

You could decide that R Yehudah or R Nechemiah (isn't that R Meir's
real name?) was a daas yachid, and consensus was that Moshe wrote these
pesuqim too. The Rambam has other cases where he says that something in
the gemara was a daas yachid and not Chazal as a whole's hashkafah.

R Meir Simcha haKohein appears to have taken a third route: He says the
Torah must end before these 8 pesuqim. These pesuqim are a codicil, an
epilog. Part of the seifer Torah, but not part of the Torah. And
therefore not within the Rambam's iqar.

Note that in the gemara (BB 15a) R Yehoshua replies by questioning if a
"seifer Torah" could be missing even a single word. Not "the Torah".
And therefore says Moshe wrote these pesuqim, but bedim'ah.

So RMShK seems to be saying that the whole reason why the machloqes is
within the 13 iqarim is because these last pesuqim weren't included by
the iqar articulated by the Rambam either.

>                                           "And why are they there? To
> teach the importance of passing the baton to the next generation.",
> seems so trite vis-a-vis the infinite depth of Toras Hashem.

Again, this is the MC, not Micha Berger. Perhaps my wording, because it
was an extreme summary, came out trite. To the MC, this one comma between
seifer and Torah implied by the gender of "zeh" is the reason to launch
into a discussion of the relative value of learning and teaching. E.g. why
going to give a shiur (hekhsher of teaching) outranks sitting in a sukkah
(mitzvah), but actual learning doesn't even justify not attending to
building a sukkah (learning is trumped by heksher mitzvah).

He also uses it to explain "ashrei mi shelo nivra" and why the Y-mi says
that someone who learns just to learn would hve been better off been
strangled in birth. Since learning is easier if one stayed with the mal'akh.
We are here to apply what we learn.

Etc...

See MC Devarim 28:61, d"h "gam kolcholi..." for yourself. I have a copy
with my translation and commentary at
https://aspaqlaria.aishdas.org/2021/08/27/learning-and-teaching/

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 People were created to be loved.
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   Things were created to be used.
Author: Widen Your Tent      The reason why the world is in chaos is that
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF    things are being loved, people are being used.