[Avodah] fyi - m'mekomos on TIDE as l'chatchila (from Rabbi Reisman)

[mcohen at touchlogic.com]

Rabbi Reisman – Parshas Korach 5785
 
I would like to share with you a second thought. In 1933, Rav Schwab returned from Lita to Germany. He was born in Germany in 1908. At age 16, he traveled first to Telz and then to Mir. And for five years learned in the Litvishe yeshivos. And he came back to Germany. In '33 he got a shtelle in a small town in Germany as a rav. He was torn. As he writes himself, he was torn between the Torah im derech eretz chinuch of Germany and the kulo Torah chinuch of Lita. And what he did at that time, 1933, he was 25 years old, was to write letters to Gedolei Yisrael to ask them, was Rav Shamshon Refael Hirsch's shita of Torah im derech eretz meant to be b'dieved? That really kulo Torah is the correct approach, but there was a compromise because of the assimilation and the haskala going on in Germany? Or is it l'chatchila? We don't know how many gedolim he wrote it to.
 
We know Rav Elchonon responded. Rav Elchonon's letter to Rav Schwab is printed in the back of Kovetz Ha’aros in the drushim as siman yud aleph. We know Rav Boruch Ber wrote back to Rav Schwab, and his letter is printed in the back of Birchas Shmuel on Kiddushin, siman chaf zayin. There's a letter from the Rogatchover responding. And we have from Rav Wolbe that one of the letters was to Rav Yerucham, the Mir Mashgiach. And another one of the letters was to Rav Bloch, the Rosh Yeshiva in Telz.
 
He also wrote a letter to Rav Kook. Now we don't have Rav Kook's response, it could be Rav Kook did not respond, but we have the original letter of Rav Schwab which was found among the ksavim of Rav Kook. And this is published in the HaMa'ayan journal in the '60s, 1963, I believe. I think in the Otzar HaChochma, I believe it's number chaf ches. And we have Rav Schwab's letter there and a number of the responses.
 
Now this is not the setting to go through the entire response, but I'd like to share Rav Yerucham's response. Rav Yerucham did not, to our knowledge, write a letter back, but he gave vadim on the topic. And Rav Wolbe, his talmid, who wrote a kuntres Adam B'Yakar. Adam B'Yakar is a biography of his rebbe, Rav Yerucham. Rav Wolbe signs it (מאחד שאינו ראוי להיקרא תלמידו). And there, in I believe perek yud gimmel, the entire perek is devoted to Rav Yerucham's response.
 
The yesod of Rav Yerucham's response was the following yesod. He writes, there are two paths to Gan Eden, two paths to Olam Haba, and they're both equally valid paths. One path is the derech ha'tivi, the natural path. And one is the al tivi, is the more than natural path. They're two paths. The derech ha'tivi is Torah im derech eretz. We know there was a Shevet Zevulun and a Shevet Yissachar. We know there were Yidden in Eretz Yisrael that worked the land. It's a derech ha'tivi, a derech to go.
 
There's a derech me'al tivi, there's a higher path, a higher way to get there. The derech she’al tivi, to make it without a plan for parnassa, without a clear mahalach. That plan, that derech she’al tivi, is the path of kulo Torah. The path of people who want to be ochlei hamon and devote themselves to kulo Torah. And that path is only through Torah.
 
All mitzvos are tied to certain times. You daven certain times. You shake lulav certain times. If somebody goes with the derech ha'tivi, has to be kovea itim l'Torah. He has to learn at certain times. The al tivi derech is a person who's kulo masur l'Torah, who's daveik b'Torah. He's totally devoted to Torah, he's not tied to any time or any place or any zman. And that derech is a derech of kulo Torah.
 
This yesod comes from the Meshech Chochma in Parshas Vayechi, towards the end of Vayechi I believe. Where the Meshech Chochma writes about the mahalach of kulo Torah as opposed to, he doesn't call it Torah im derech eretz, the other mahalach.
 
So these are two paths. Now they're not necessarily mutually exclusive. I mean to say, is even if somebody is not a kulo Torah person, he's a Torah im derech eretz person, there's an ability to be noteh towards the al tivi, the above tivi mahalach. There's an ability to go above it.
 
What it says in the Meshech Chochma is that (ימין) is the derech of Torah and (שמאל) is the derech of Torah im derech eretz. (וְהַמַּיִם לָהֶם חוֹמָה, מִימִינָם וּמִשְּׂמֹאלָם). It says it in both ways. The Meshech Chochma is dibur hamaschil u'b'Zohar ha'Kadosh, he quotes a Zohar. Tehillim 118:16 (יְמִין יְרוָר, עֹשָׂה חָיִל) 118:17 (לֹא-אָמוּת). Darshins the smichus. That when Hashem goes with yemin Hashem with kulo Torah, lo amus. He's l'ma'ala min olam hazeh.
 
I don't believe that those who are l'ma'ala min olam hazeh need my shiur on the parsha. My chaverim are like me, they are in the weakness of a derech hativi. But im kol zeh we need to be inspired by a derech she’al tivi, a derech of dveykus to Torah.
 
In Eretz Yisrael the Kollel men today are suffering financially and gedolei yisrael came here to try to help for those who are, they're really are derech she’al tivi, an unexplainable path to make it in olam hazeh and to do it in a way that's kulo Torah. We need to be inspired by them. We need to take a vacation time, a time we're off, and make it a time of kulo Torah. Make it a time of ibergegeb'n to Torah. Make it a time where a person goes to a yarchei kallah. A person has more chavrusos.
 
Chas v'shalom. Somebody should go on a vacation and learn less than when he works? What a kitrug on a person. When I got married, my father told me an eitza. He told me a few eitzos. One eitza he said, when you go on vacation with your wife, it's hard to tell her I want to go learn in the afternoon. You're on vacation. You get up early in the morning, get up four o'clock in the morning and learn for four or five hours. Then in the afternoon, say, you know, we're on vacation, let's take a nap. A nap on vacation, that doesn't get on anyone's nerves. Ah, a gevaldige eitza.
 
My point is, when you're planning your vacation, it should be a vacation that's me'al tivi, a vacation that's devoted to Torah, to increase time in Torah. IY”H we should all be zocheh that we should have a summer of aliyah, not chas v'shalom a summer of yerida, a summer meaningful in our avodas Hashem. A guten zumer to all!
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20250629/27b507bc/attachment.htm>