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

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Jun 29, 2025 at 05:07:03PM -0400, mcohen via Avodah wrote:
> Rabbi Reisman -- Parshas Korach 5785
...
> 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 (). 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 ...
> 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.

I am more comfortable with REED's formulation, that hishtadlus
is not all-or-nothing, but proportional to bitachon. Which does away
with the "two derakhim" being suggested here, and turns them into
extremes in a range of possible lifestyles.

The absolute lemaaalah min hateva end is for Rashbi, but not the masses.
Abayei famously says (Berakhos 35b) that while both Rashbi and R
Yisma'el's approaches to teva are valid, you need to be a Rashbi to
succeed at his derekh. If tannaim and amora'im couldn't do it, how can
we think thousands of men today can?


And more fundamentally, since when is TiDE about Torah vaAvodah or Torah
uParnasah. RSRH didn't say go get a job. He said that the point of the
Torah is to be maqdish the world, and in order to do that you had to
use Torah to to live properly within and to influence general society.

It's not whether or not dips within teva for their own needs. It's
whether one believes the whole point is to fuse Torah and Olam haZeh.

Still, his closing point is unassailable, even without my ability to
understand his presentation of R Wolbe's presentation of R Yeruchem:

> 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.

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 Zion will be redeemed through justice,
http://www.aishdas.org/asp   and her returnees, through righteousness.
Author: Widen Your Tent
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF