Avos 4:14-16: Inseparability of Learning & Teaching

Rabbi Nehorai omer

הוי גולה למקום תורה ואל תאמר שהיא תבוא אחריך שחבריך יקיימוה בידך ואל בינתך אל תשען.

The Rambam omer

בקש מקום הלימוד כי אם זולתך יתבאר לך הלימוד ויתקיים ואל תסמוך על תבונתך ותאמר שהינך מוותר על החברים והתלמידים שיעורבוך.

So there are two, two very, very noteworthy elements here in the Rambam's comment on the Mishna. Excuse me one second. Two, two very noteworthy elements. First of all, הוי גולה למקום תורה. The Rambam doesn't say anything about, about Rabbeyim, right? What is it that, that you'll find in the Mekom Torah? He doesn't mention Rabbeyim. So that's element number one. Noteworthy element number two is that the Mishna speaks explicitly about Chaverim, the vital need for Chaverim. It doesn't say anything lichora, doesn't seem to say anything about Talmidim, and yet the Rambam does speak about Talmidim. Let's maybe just re-read the Rambam for a minute here. Omer

בקש מקום הלימוד כי אם זולתך יתבאר לך הלימוד ויתקיים ואל תסמוך על תבונתך ותאמר שהינך מוותר על החברים והתלמידים שיעורבוך.

Okay. So in terms of the first question, lichora the answer is very simple: that Rabbi Nehorai is clearly counteracting a hava amina that we may have, might have entertained. A person would not entertain a hava amina that I don't need to go to my Rebbe. No, let my Rebbe, if he wants to teach me, let him come to me. No, that's not such a, such a cogent hava amina. That's not gonna occur to us. We understand if we want to learn from this Rebbe that we have to go to the Rebbe. One might have thought that now it's true I don't need Chaverim and certainly let the Talmidim come to me. Why should I have to uproot myself to go to a place where, where there will be Talmidim? No, the Talmidim should, should come to me. So those two thoughts easily we would have entertained. So memeila that's what the Mishna is, but Rabbi Nehorai doesn't have to tell us and therefore he isn't telling us, you know, don't wait for the Rebbe to show up on your doorstep. You know there's a Rebbe, you go to him. That's pashut. What perhaps what isn't pashut to us, what wouldn't have been pashut to us, and what Rabbi Nehorai needs to, to communicate, is that don't think that a person is only in need of a Rebbe. No, he's also in need of Chaverim and then at the correct stage in life of Talmidim as well. Okay, that's in terms of the first ha'ara. In terms of the second ha'ara, where did the Rambam see that, that Rabbi Nehorai is talking about Talmidim? איבעית אימא קרא איבעית אימא סברא. Ibayit eima svara meaning lav davka that there's any textual, that it's textually telegraphed, but maybe היות שהרבה למדתי מרבותי. something Taanis says ויותר מחברי ואפילו יותר מתלמידי. So if that's the case, so then Rav Narai has to be talking not only about one's need for chaveirim, he certainly needs to be talking about one's need for talmidim as well. And and mikoch hasvara lachud, the Rambam would tell us that that Rav Narai is speaking not only about chaveirim, but about talmidim as well. But the emes is, hashtas de'asinan lehachi, if he had to be speaking about it, so it must be here in the words also. Must be here in the words also. So where where where do you see it in the words? That that Rav Narai is talking about that the reason apparently Rav Narai was not too fond of Zoom. Otherwise, you know, one sort of surmises the את גבול מקום תורה. Okay. So either it's a mkor for not liking Zoom or it's a mkor for not using Zoom. Okay. Avucha yivchar. But okay. But everything לפי המקום לפי הזמן רבותי obviously in a more serious vein. Where where do you have here that that Rav Narai is speaking about talmidim? So yeitachein hasvara shechaveirecha yikayemuha biyadecha ואל בינתך אל תשען. Don't rely on your own understanding. If ואל בינתך אל תשען were, I'm not sure about this next point, but but I think it's correct. If ואל בינתך אל תשען were also implying the need for chaveirim, so then shouldn't the Mishnah have said

אל תאמר שיסברו אחריך ואל בינתך אל תשען שחבריך יקימוה ויסמכו אותך,

yehu lecha le'mish'enes. So ela mai, so yeitachein hasvara. Again, chochmah binah. What's the difference between chochmah and binah? So Rashi tells us, I I don't know whether Rashi here in Avos, but Rashi al HaTorah tells us that chochmah is is knowledge, a person a person knows what what he's taught. What he he masters a body, a corpus of knowledge. He's a chocham. Binah is that he's מבין דבר מתוך דבר. It means that that the person, based on what he's taught, goes even further. He's מבין דבר מתוך דבר. He's mechadesh. Oh, so now the pshat is like this rabbosai. Speaking in in terms of topology. Not again topology means ideal types as opposed to in in real life, so the lines are not so clearly and absolutely drawn. It's true to a large degree in in real life as well, but but not we'll say it in the in the ideal terms. When a person is a talmid, so his the ikar of his learning is absorbing chochmah. That that in in In one's capacity as a talmid, that's one's role: to be mekabbel, to be mekabbel. In one's role as a chaver is to is to retain, to to make sure that one understands and retains that which he was mekabbel. The talmidim they prepare for the shiur, they chazzer the shiur together. So in one's capacity as a chaver, one is... the emphasis, again, as a talmid, one's being mekabbel. As a chaver, one's being retaining, mekayem. Mekayem not in the sense of fulfill, mekayem in the sense of of to give it a kiyum, to retain. In one's capacity as a rebbe, so then one also adds a chiddush, a he'arah of his own to that which he was mekabbel from his rebbeim. So the אל בינתך אל תשען means you're saying chiddushim now, you're being מבין דבר מתוך דבר. So maybe you'll think: I'm the one who's being mechaddesh, so what do I need the talmidim for? They're just sitting, they're being mekabbel. The rebbe thinks to himself: I'm being mechaddesh, they're being mekabbel. So I can be mechaddesh without them also. I can be mechaddesh without them also. Oh, so comes Rabbenu Yonah and says, comes Rabbenu Yonah and says: No, אל בינתך אל תשען. Even when you're in the capacity, it's not really even, it's really especially, but even when you're in the capacity of binah, of מבין דבר מתוך דבר, you're filling the role, not of the talmid, who's a mekabbel, not of the chaver, who's a mekayem, but you're fulfilling the role of the rebbe, who's a melammed, who's a מבין דבר מתוך דבר, who's who's saying a he'arah, who's giving an insight, who's giving a chiddush. Don't think you're self-sufficient. Al tish'an. Yitachen me'od that this mishnah gives us yet another perspective on the shittas HaRambam. Shittas HaRambam in Minyan HaMitzvos in contradistinction to Rav Saadia Gaon. Rav Saadia Gaon counts lilmod u'lelamed as two different mitzvos. The Rambam counts lilmod u'lelamed as a single mitzvah in the Minyan HaMitzvos. If you have a Sefer HaMitzvos for a minute, excuse me one second. If you take a look at Hamitzvah Hayud-Aleph in the mitzvos asseh, Hamitzvah Hayud-Aleph.

המצוה הי"א היא שצונו ללמוד חכמת התורה וללמדה וזהו שנקרא תלמוד תורה והוא אמרו ושננתם לבניך ובלשון ספרי לבניך אלו תלמידיך וכן אתה מוצא בכל מקום שהתלמידים קרויים בנים שנאמר ויצאו בני הנביאים.

V'sham ne'emar, meaning in the Sifrei:

ושננתם שיהיו מחודדים בפיך כשאדם שואלך דבר לא תהא מגמגם לו אלא אמור לו מיד וכבר נכפל הצווי הזה פעמים רבות ולמדתם ועשיתם.

I forget what the next is, l'maan yilmedun or l'maan yilamedun. Okay.

וכבר הזהירו על מצוה זו ולשקוד בה תמיד במקומות הרבה מן התלמוד.

So we've mentioned in the past that whenever the Rambam is ma'arich in Sefer HaMitzvot beyond just giving the ikkar definition of the mitzvah, it's because he's proving something. It's because there's something different or new about his minyan hamitzvot in contrast to that of the Geonim. And again, clearly here the Rambam knows of Rav Saadia Gaon who counts it as two mitzvot. So it's klar that the Rambam is here arguing his position against that of Rav Saadia Gaon. And that's the pshat ושננתם שיהיו דברי תורה מחודדים בפיך. So lechora that's just a shiur in Talmud Torah. How, what kind of mastery of Torah Shebeal Peh should you strive for? sheyihyu mechudadim beficha. It should be at the tip of your tongue,

שאם ישאלך אדם דבר אל תגמגם אלא אמור לו מיד.

Al tegagem, you shouldn't have to stutter and try to think and try to pull it up from the recesses of the memory bank, no, it should be mechudad beficha. A friend of mine told me a story last night that he had heard from Rav Hartman, the Baal Maharal, that Rav Hartman once asked Chacham Ovadia zichrono livracha what the status of the Maharal was in halacha. Maharal wrote halachic works as well. Bizman hazeh we know him as a Baal Machshava, but he wrote, he has halachic works as well. So Chacham Ovadia said, הלכה כמותו כמעט בכל מקום. And then proceeded to list off 36 places where the poskim, as if he had spent the past 10 years preparing for this question. He then proceeded without a moment's hesitation to enumerate 36 places, I think it was 36, I just heard the story last night I forgot already, 36 places where where the poskim quote the Maharal lehalacha. So שיהיו דברי תורה מחודדים בפיך. But that, okay, so that's but that's lechora just a דין מדיני תלמוד תורה. It belongs in Hilchos Talmud Torah. It doesn't belong in Sefer HaMitzvot. Ella mai, it's klar that what what's the Rambam doing is as follows: The Rambam says, look at the two drashot of the Sifrei. The first drasha of the Sifrei understands veshinantam levanecha as referring to teaching. The second drasha of the Sifrei understands veshinantam as learning. Right?

שאם ישאלך אדם דבר אל תגמגם אלא אמור לו מיד.

The fact that it's depicted in this way doesn't mean that it's talking about teaching. No, it's if you want to say how what your mastery is, then it means you have to be challenged. I mean it's very easy to choose, you know, I can choose a mishna to say baal peh, that's no kunz. You know, you take a mishna from here and there and that's no kunz, right? But the kunz is if someone puts you on the spot and says, say this mishna baal peh. So even though it's being depicted as אם ישאלך אדם דבר, it's clear that that this drasha is talking about learning, it's not talking about teaching. So which is it? Veshinantam is talking about learning or teaching? The answer is clearly Chazal are telling us it means both. That that the word veshinantam is both transitive and intransitive. It's intransitive, it means learning. It's transitive, it means teaching. Oh, so that's what the Rambam says, so you see that the Torah bedavka combines the learning and teaching into one word. Why? Because it's one mitzvah. Kol zman that that we would only know learning and teaching from different psukim, from different phrases, so I don't know whether we would necessarily have had this explicit, this this explicit kevius that it's one mitzvah. But Veshinantam means you should learn, you should teach. Oh, so you see that that one word is one mitzvah, one word is not two mitzvos. Okay, so that's in terms of just just sort of the the core, how how you see it in the pesukim. That lilmod u'lelamed again what so now let's try to sort of process the significance of this. Again, we think of lilmod u'lelamed as distinct, distinct activities, maybe even distinct spheres, obviously related, obviously connected. I mean some of us I confess do try to teach without learning, but that's not really what you're supposed to do, really you're supposed to learn and know a lot and then teach. Okay, but so some of us try to we try to we try to fake our way through it. But but if you do it the right way, so obviously clearly they're connected, but the fact that they're connected, the fact that they're interrelated still doesn't conflate them into a single mitzvah. And yet it's clear here that that it's a single mitzvah. So the Torah's telling us that the two are not just connected, they're inseparable. Right? You can have two things that that are connected but they're not inseparable. You can have Siamese twins who can be separated. They're connected but but they can be they can be separated. Then you can have two things which are inseparable. You can have that they can't be they can't be separated. So lilmod u'lelamed are inseparable. So in what sense are they inseparable? Why can't I I can learn and not teach? I can learn and not teach, so the learning lechora is is something which would seem to be separable. So so there are three lechora, at least three elements to the answer. Three dimensions. One is if you have the Rambam Hilchos Talmud Torah for a minute rabbosai.

פרק א הלכה א. נשים ועבדים פטורים מתלמוד תורה אבל קטן אביו חייב ללמדו תורה שנאמר ולמדתם אותם את בניכם לדבר בם.

Excuse me.

ואין האשה חייבת ללמד את בנה שכל חייב ללמוד חייב ללמד. כשם שאדם חייב ללמד את בנו

Halacha Beis,

כך הוא חייב ללמד את בן בנו שנאמר והודעתם לבניך ולבני בניך ולא בנו ובן בנו בלבד אלא מצווה על כל חכם וחכם מישראל ללמד את כל התלמידים אף על פי שאינן בניו שנאמר ושיננתם לבניך מפי השמועה למדו בניך אלו תלמידיך שהתלמידים קרויים בנים שנאמר ויצאו בני הנביאים אם כן למה נצטווה על בנו ועל בן בנו להקדים בנו לבן חברו ולהקדים בנו לבן בנו ובן בנו לבן חברו.

Good. Let's let's let's peruse the next five halachos or so. Let's skip to Halacha Ches, פרק א הלכה ח. Excuse me.

כל איש מישראל חייב בתלמוד תורה בין עני בין עשיר בין שלם בגופו בין בעל ייסורין בין בחור בין שהיה זקן גדול שתשש כוחו. אפילו עני המחזר על הפתחים ואפילו בעל אשה ובנים חייב לקבוע לו זמן לתלמוד תורה ביום ובלילה שנאמר והגית בו יומם ולילה.

So it's a pele. The Rambam first talks about the chiyuv and the halachos of teaching Torah and only later does he talk about the chiyuv and halachos of learning Torah. Now he needs to preface נשים פטורות מתלמוד תורה because since an ishah's peturah from learning, mimeila she's also peturah from teaching. But basically The Rambam begins Hilchos Talmud Torah not with learning Torah but teaching Torah, which again is obviously counter-intuitive because it's out of order. So the Rav quotes from Rav Chaim that the pshat is that the Rambam is telling us that the ikker mitzvah of Talmud Torah is the teaching. The ikker mitzvah of Talmud Torah is that we should all through velimadtem be a link in the mesorah. How is a person a link in the mesorah? He learns and transmits. Okay, what I don't learn I can't transmit. What I don't know I can't share. But the ikker is the lilamed. To signify that, so the Rambam begins even though it's obviously shelo k'seder in terms of a person's life and a person's chronology, the Rambam begins with the mitzvah of teaching or the half of the mitzvah of teaching rather than learning. So this l'chora provides one reflection of how lilmode is inseparable from lilamed because the ikker of the lilmode is that it should culminate in the lilamed. It's not just that the lilmode is necessary for the lilamed, but it's almost that the meaningfulness of the lilmode is contingent upon the ultimate lilamed. Again, it's gonna be at a different stage of life obviously. That's okay. It doesn't mean that at every minute the lilmode is translating into the lilamed. So that's one way in which we see that the lilmode is inseparable from the lilamed. That's one. A second one I think we spoke about earlier here in our learning of Avos when we said when we were talking on the Mishnah of ללמוד על מנת ללמד, so we said the pshat is תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב. That b'emes Torah wasn't given to each of us individually. Torah was given to Knesses Yisrael collectively. תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב. It's an inheritance to kehilas Yaakov. So no one has a right to make Torah his private property. What a person knows, what a person learns, he must intend to share with the. Okay, again, if you're a big chacham in chochmas hanister, okay you can only share it with those who are appropriate and maybe there will be some things you know that you never find a talmid who's ra'uy to be mikabel that degree and level of chochmas hanister. Okay, so if there are no ani'im you can't be mikayem mitzvas d'tzedakah. But that's another way in which the lilmode is inseparable from lilamed because if the lilmode is not al m'nas lilamed, if the lilmode isn't conjoined with the lilamed, so then that I have no right to engage in such a limud. I have no right to make the Talmud Torah my private property. But our Mishnah l'chora also helps us with a third dimension to the inseparability of lilmode from lilamed and that is as follows: ועל בינתך אל תשען. Even on the level of learning, a person is dependent upon talmidim. It's not only the pshat that that's my ikker mitzvah. It's not only the pshat that that's a requirement because I have no right to make it my private property. But independent of both of those, even if a person would with tunnel vision just be thinking about learning. He's dependent upon the talmudim also. ואל בינתך אל תשען. That's the Rambam on our mishnah. ואל תסמוך על תבונתך. Don't deceive yourself into thinking that you can rely on your own binah, on your own koach hachidush, on your own analytical skills. Ve-somar she-hincha mevutach. No, I don't need הלא החברים והתלמידים שיעוררוך. No, even for the purpose of learning, a person is entirely dependent upon the talmudim. Talmudim should question, talmudim should challenge, they should push for further clarification, for further development, vechulu. Mi-talmiday yoser mi-kulom. Lechora, this halachah, this idea, this metzius is reflected also in harbay lomadeti me-rabbosai, yoser mi-chaverai, and above all, mi-talmiday yoser mi-kulom. I don't remember, we spoke about... I don't remember whether we got to this, in the mishnah back of Elazar omer, but

יהי כבוד תלמידך חביב עליך ככבוד חברך וכבוד חברך כמורא רבך ומורא רבך כמורא שמים.

So we spoke at some length about כבוד חברך כמורא רבך, that by rabbo, kovod and mora are one continuum, and therefore one can say you should be machshiv kvod chavayrecha the same way you're machshiv mora rabbecha. But lechora what that implies, and I don't remember whether we discussed this, and if we did, machzorim, which is not a terrible thing to do. Lechora what that implies, though, is that the kvod chavayrecha that we're speaking of in this mishnah, again, is of the same, unlike what kovod and mora mean by av ve-aymo, the kvod chavayrecha here is comparable to what kovod means by kvod talmiday chachamim, right? As we discussed, that what kovod and mora signify, what they express, differs by av ve-aymo and rabbo. So clearly here, for our whole peshat to cohere, it's clearly the case that kvod chavayrecha is again on... is of the same min as kvod talmiday chachamim. Or, but when you look in the Rambam in Hilchos De'os about the mitzvah of ahavas Yisrael, it doesn't sound like that at all.

מצוה על כל אחד ואחד לאהוב כל אחד מישראל כגופו.

You have to be chos al kvodo u-mamonno. I don't know, that sounds much closer to what kovod means by av ve-aymo than what it means by kvod talmiday chachamim and rabbo. Ella mai, it's klor that we talked about this... we didn't talk about this, Rabosai. No, okay. So it's klor that in this mishnah, chavayrecha doesn't mean every fellow Jew. Chavayrecha means your chavayrim in limud. It means your chavrusas, your chavayr... not only your chavrusas, your chavayr in limud. Your chavayr in limud. Or, and then lechora it's klor as follows. If you take a look, again, back to the Rambam in Hilchos Talmud Torah for a moment, Rabosai, at the end of perek hey. Halachah yud beis. Perek hey halachah yud beis.

כשם שהתלמידים חייבין בכבוד הרב כך הרב צריך לכבד את תלמידיו ולקרבם.

Kach amru chachamim... So clearly, clearly what the Rambam here is telling us is that just as the mishna in Bava Metzia tells us, which the Rambam quoted in Halacha Aleph, that the mechayev of kvod rabo is that rabo is מביאו לידי חיי עולם הבא, that mechayev exists by talmido also. It's not only rabo who's מביאו לידי חיי עולם הבא, it's talmido מביא אותו לידי חיי עולם הבא. How so? What do you mean the rabo, so he's teaching me Torah? That's my ticket. How the talmidim? Oh, so that's what the Rambam continues Halacha Yud Gimmel. This is the flow, the Rambam continues Halacha Yud Gimmel:

התלמידים מוסיפין חכמת הרב ומחבין ליבו. אמרו חכמים הרבה חכמה למדתי מחבירי יותר מרבותי ומתלמידי יותר מכולם. וכשם שעץ קטן מדליק את הגדול,

you can take a match and you can start a medurah, you can go to Meron in Lag Ba'omer, you take one little fire and you make a big medurah.

וכשם שעץ קטן מדליק את הגדול, כך תלמיד קטן מחדד את הרב עד שיוציא ממנו בשאילתו חכמה מפוארה.

So it's clear that that's the flow in the Rambam. So the Rambam is telling us that how does this mishna know, this mishna is taking for granted our previous mishna, Yehi Kvod Talmidcha, where do you find that there is such a thing as kvod hatalmidim? Right, Rabbi Elozor is, I don't know, it seems like he started running before the gun. He's already telling us how much you should be machshiv kvod talmidim. I didn't know there was a chiyuv kvod talmidim. I didn't know there was a chiyuv kvod chaveirim. No, Rabbi Elozor is saying if you know there's a chiyuv of kvod rabo, so then you know there's a chiyuv kvod chaveirim and kvod talmidim as well, because the same way you have the mechayev by rabo of מביאו לידי חיי עולם הבא, you have the mechayev by chaveirim and talmidim, they're also מביאים אותו לידי חיי עולם הבא. And that's what the Rambam at the end of Halacha Yud Bais says, that

צריך אדם להיזהר בתלמידיו שכן הם הבנים המהנים בעולם הזה ולעולם הבא.

And that's what he continues in Halacha Yud Gimmel, that התלמידים מוסיפין חכמת הרב ומחבין ליבו. Oh, so these halachos, the mishna of Yehi Kvod Chaveircha, our mishna of אל בינתך אל תשען gives us yet a third, gives us yet a third aspect to how limud is inseparable from lilamed. Limud is inseparable from lilamed because the ikkar mitzvah is lilamed. Limud is inseparable from lilamed because I have no right to make Torah my private property. I have no right to lilmod if I'm not going to be melamed. But limud is also inseparable from lilamed because if a person doesn't teach, his limud, his learning, is impaired. His learning is impaired. He won't have that tosefos da'as and that harchavas halev, he won't have that ye'orevucha hatalmidim lehavin that a person can only have by engaging in the teaching. What's the next mishna? Rabbi Yannai Omer,

אין בידינו לא משלות רשעים אף לא מיסורי צדיקים. המקדים לשלום כל אדם והוי זנב לאריות ואל תהי ראש לשועלים.

But what does the Rambam say?

אמר כי היות תלמיד למי שהוא חכם ממנו עדיף וטוב לו מי שיהיה רב למי שהוא פחות ממנו. לפי שבאופן הראשון הוא מוסיף ובשני הוא נחסר. ואתה יודע ממה שביארנו בסנהדרין ששמו על יסוד מעלין בקודש ראש ישיבה של עשרים ושלושה אחרון שבשבעים ואחד של ישיבה גדולה וראו בזה שהוסיפו לו מעלה.

A person can be the head of a סנהדרין של עשרים ושלושה and then it's a promotion which is in keeping with the halacha of מעלין בקודש ואין מורידין that he becomes the lowest member of a סנהדרין של שבעים ואחד. So says the Rambam, you see that it's better to be a zanav l'arayos than a rosh l'shualim. So I don't know here just to ask the question, I don't have the answer. The raya lichora doesn't seem to add up, no? Let's say a משל למה הדבר דומה. Let's say you have someone who's a federal judge. Federal judge. And then he or she gets appointed to the Supreme Court. So as a federal judge, itachen that they had seniority, that they were the appellate court, that they were an appellate court. And now let's just say seniority. And now having been appointed to the Supreme Court, so he or she becomes the junior member of the Supreme Court. I think the halacha in the Supreme Court is that if the justices are in conference and they're in a room and someone knocks on the door, so it's the junior most member who's mechuyav to get up and answer the door. Okay. So here you have this person who was used to being the high-ranking judge on the federal court, below his or her dignity to answer the door, pishite zich. And now look at this, look at this come down. Now when someone knocks on the door, he or she has to go answer the door. So says the Rambam, no, I would have thought it has nothing to do with rosh l'shualim and zanav l'arayos, I would have thought the yichus of the Supreme Court, the position, not because I'm a zanav l'arayos. No, as a Supreme Court justice, that's a more distinguished position than a federal judge. Agam that it makes me not because I'm a zanav l'arayos, even though I'm a zanav l'arayos, but it's still it's a higher position. I don't know, would you rather be a starting player in the minor leagues or a utility player in the major leagues? Mistanma you'd rather be a utility player in the major leagues, not because you want to be a zanav l'arayos, but because it's a more chashuva job. So what's the Rambam's raya? And and it's maalin bakodesh for that reason. So I'm not sure what the Rambam's raya is here. Rebbi Yaakov omer,

עולם הזה דומה לפרוזדור לפני העולם הבא. התקן עצמך בפרוזדור כדי שתיכנס לטרקלין. טרקלין ההיכל ופרוזדור המבוא והמשל ברור והכוונה ידועה שבבעולם הזה נכחיות המעלה שבהן יזכה אדם לחיי העולם הבא וזה אינו אלא דרך ומבוא לההוא.

So the Rambam says here that basically there's two elements to what Rebbi Yaakov is telling us. The moshal of... of prozdor and traklin is telling us two things. Number one, it's telling us that the only way you can get into the traklin is through the prozdor. Right? The only way you you get to the banquet hall is by in and the hotel is by walking through the lobby. There's no there's no alternate route. You have to walk through the lobby. You have to you have to in order to the only way you get into a Zoom shiur is you have to first do your time in the waiting room. Only after you do your time in the Zoom waiting room that's why that's why the yeshiva insisted on a waiting room to to teach this mishna. The only way you get into the room is first you have to cool your heels in the in the waiting room. So first of all Rabbi Yaakov is telling us that the only way to get to Olam Haba is through Olam Hazeh, which means through what a person does and accomplishes in Olam Hazeh. But the Rambam sees more than that in the mishna. The Rambam is also telling us that the prozdor, it's not only that the prozdor is the entry way to the traklin, it also serves no other purpose. There's no inyan to enjoy the prozdor k'she'le'atzmo. To no the only tachlis of the prozdor is that that it leads to the traklin. So A the limud is that the only way to get to the traklin is through the prozdor, but you might think okay so make sure that that's part of what you get done in the prozdor. No says the Rambam but it's more than that. It's not only

שבעולם הזה נרכשות המעלה שבהן יזכה האדם לחיי העולם הבא,

it's also that that's the sole purpose of the prozdor. The sole purpose of the of the prozdor is to is to access the the the traklin. Okay so so we'll stop here. Okay so bli neder be'ezrat Hashem the bechina in in some form or other is tomorrow. More more on that tomorrow. And everyone should be very matzliach with the chazara, very matzliach on the on the bechina and and beyond be'ezrat Hashem. Okay everyone should have a productive day and and be well be safe be'ezrat Hashem. Thank you Rebbi. Thank you Rebbi. Thank you Rebbi. The recording has stopped. Yeah Imanuel. I just have a question. What does Rebbi think about obviously people like someone like the Chazon Ish sat for many many years and just kind of sat and learned and seems like him or maybe it just might be an exception but some people seemingly they didn't have talmidim and they grew immensely in their Torah. The question is an excellent one. So I mean lich'ora what that maaseh rav shows, but I think anyway we we should recognize this even if we didn't have that maaseh rav is that we're not necessarily talking about that it's simultaneous. Meaning it doesn't have to be that oh as soon as the Rav has a chiddush you know he has to run into the beit midrash give a clap and say okay we have to have shiur right now because I just you know I just had an idea and or better yet you know let's say the idea occurs him at three in the morning so he's gonna go banging on you know all the the doors in the dormitory waking everyone up and you know shiur in 10 minutes and you know be there or be square. No he doesn't have to. It means over the course of a lifetime. But I also remember hearing stories about Rav Elyashiv saying that he just wanted to sit and learn. He didn't want to teach and he preferred just sit and learn all day like he didn't feel like he didn't need that. He didn't need, I mean people just might be exceptions and just. I guess what one can imagine, I don't know, you're asking very well, I don't know is the short answer. The longer answer is one can imagine that there would be exceptions to chavrei. I don't know, maybe Rav Elyashiv doesn't need chavrei. But talmudai zachu, that's even, meaning you have to understand, your question will remain because even if we far-entfer not teaching mi-tzad this third aspect of not needing it for the learning, but you still have the first two aspects. So somehow or other obviously he felt that whatever the quota of teaching was supposed to be that he had that in his life. Now maybe what it means is, I don't know, maybe Rav Elyashiv will say to give a shiur an hour a day or to pasken sheilos for half hour a day I need to learn eighteen hours a day on my own. But that is that's still the ללמוד על מנת ללמד. ללמוד על מנת ללמד doesn't dictate a mathematical formula. The fact that the ikar mitzvah is the teaching doesn't mean that the majority of one's hours will be spent teaching necessarily. I mean that you do in terms of paskening sheilos, so that you do have stories where he said that if he wasn't sitting and learning all the time then he wouldn't be in a position to pasken when he made himself available. So al karchach you have to say that whatever however their seder hayom translated they clearly felt that the lalamed was there in the proportion that it needed to be. I think you're entirely right that there is difference in Gedolim between maybe in terms of division of time how that lalamed translates so then I think your hearah is very much correct. You certainly have Gedolim who spent much much more who devoted much much more time quantitatively to the teaching than the stories than the seder hayom of Rav Elyashiv did. So there certainly is the individuality is there but you have to say that for everyone. I think in Rav Wolbe tells a story about Rav Yerucham that Rav Yerucham was mashgiach in the Mir in Europe. So once one of the older talmidim, the more brilliant ones, told a kasha the whole beis medrash was working on and he came up with a very sharp teirutz. And it sort of rippled through the beis medrash. So Rav Yerucham sent for him and Rav Yerucham said I heard you said a nice teirutz. So tell me how long did you work on the sugya to come up with that teirutz? So I forget the guy either answered four hours or six. So Rav Yerucham says the ma'amar I gave last night, the mussar-shmuess was the ma'amar I said last night, how long do you think I worked on that? So he says also mistama four six hours. Rav Yerucham says no. Guess again. So he said Finally Rav Yeruchom tells him half a year. So Rav Yeruchom worked half a year and then he gave, I don't know how long the shmuess, I don't know how long the shmuess was, 20 minutes, maybe it was 45 minutes, I don't know how the shmuess was, but but that whole half a year was was al menas lamed those 45 minutes. So that's going to vary from person to person, how you know, what the quantitative breakdown is will vary, but but with everyone it is with this al menas lamed. Okay, ready? Yeah, you mentioned before just to clarify that the Bechina marn or in two days? Oh, when is it on the schedule? I think last week we mentioned that it was the 23rd, but I don't know, it could be I could be wrong. It's whenever you want. You want to make it Wednesday? What what were people expecting, Wednesday you expecting? Wednesday, good. I think I think that was what people said. Okay, I apologize, is there any way Artza maybe I'll yeah I can pass over the message, it's fine. Okay, but to everyone? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can get that message out, it's fine. Okay, the title line of the email should be good news. Okay, good news. Artza is coming but the anticipation can build for yet another day so it's Wednesday. Okay, she-koach, thank you. Rabbi Kaner, sorry. No, please go ahead. Go ahead, I apologize. Rav Ze'ev, go ahead. Okay, I was just wondering, I think in one of the Q and As last week we were talking about Chabad and Rabbi said he had to think about Rav Soloveitchik's like approach and why he maybe would have went to the farbrengen. I was wondering if Rabbi like I don't know was it like had time to think of an answer. No, I didn't have to think of an answer, I know the answer. I don't say that, I don't say that arrogantly. I say that that it's not that you should think that there was a question that it was something that needed to be answered. What I was thinking about was the right way to express it or if be-khlal it should be expressed at all. So no, it wasn't that there was any confusion or any question or any any doubt. The question was a very good and appropriate one, but it wasn't that you know, it wasn't something that I was unaware of or that meant that what had been said was at all questionable. It wasn't and it isn't. I did so I sort of decided how to say it. I'm still thinking if it should be said. So stay tuned. Yeah, Emanuel, were you going to yeah, I just I saw recently, I just started reading this biography of Rav Elyashiv, that's why I'm mentioning him, but so I said Rav Aryeh Levin said about him that he learns Torah li-shma, meaning he learns just to learn. So why isn't there anything about הלומד על מנת ללמוד, just to learn? Like that's the pshat, like that's Torah li-shma. But that is part of Torah li-shma. Torah li-shma means, means I'm not looking, means the person, he's not looking for the salary, he's not looking for the kavod, he's not looking for the schar of the mitzvah. He's learning because it's Toras Hashem. But to learn li-shma certainly includes teaching, otherwise that's not li-shma. Li-shma means he's not interested in the kavod, he's not interested even in the schar in Olam Ha-ba, that's not what he's focused on. He's learning Toras Hashem to learn Toras Hashem. But what does it mean to learn Toras Hashem? To learn and teach Toras Hashem, to learn and fulfill Toras Hashem. So so I think that's what Torah li-shma means. I think Rav Schechter once said at a Q and A in Kollel in NCSY when someone asked something about Rav Elyashiv, he said, yeah, when they write Rav Elyashiv's biography, he says it's going to be very short. He says he sat and learned. That was, okay, I guess you can have different stories about how he did that and It's quite long actually. It's quite long. In his lifetime that they came out with three volumes. Is that what you're reading? I think HaShakdan, I think this is the translated into English, so I'm just reading the one that's basically adapted it from the Hebrew one. Yeah, yeah, so that one, yeah. But it's got some good stories, though. Good stories. Important stories. Important stories. Rabbi, can I ask a question? Sure, please. Just on the Mishna of Havay Zanav La'arayos, I don't know, there's different versions in the Perush Hamishnayos, but in the one that I'm looking at it says בניין הראשון יוסף ובבניין השני יחסר, that Havay Zanav La'arayos means, excuse me, אל תהי ראש לשועלים means that there's a loss of Chachma and that seems to be the proof that they're looking for from Sanhedrin of מעלין בקודש ולא מורידין that somehow there's a Hosefas Chachma by being the junior person on the Supreme Court. Because then there's a Yaridah not in stature but in Da'as and Hasagah from being the most junior person in the room. Is that... No, that's excellent. No, I think you're right. You're right, you're right. That's excellent. I mean, the Mashal would be like this, and let's say the common application would be as follows: a person can encounter the following pitfall. He doesn't have to. The work of Kiruv. So I don't know, there's nothing holier than that, nothing more important than that, nothing greater than that. Me'idach Gisa, if that's one's only interaction, so one is very much a Rosh Lashualim, right? You're dealing with people who unfortunately don't know anything, and the context, the environment is one that can Takeh, it can lead to that Yechsar Min Hachachma that you're correctly putting your finger on in the Rambam. Ma'shein Kein, I don't know, if instead of being the head of that, or let's say, again, in terms of that Mashal, the antidote would be to simultaneously do something else because you want them to still be doing that. But if he's simultaneously a junior member of a Chaburah of big Talmidei Chachamim, so then the standards, the aspirations, the level of Chachma is something that will challenge him. So you're right, so how can you say that this is Maalin Bakodesh? Zol Zain that it Takeh is a promotion and that it's more Chashuv to be on the Supreme Court than it is to be on the Federal Court. If the person weren't going to be Moseif Chachma on the Supreme Court, you wouldn't call it Maalin Bakodesh. Good, excellent. Thank you. Yeah, that's definitely Pshat. Thank you. Thank you, Rabbi. Okay, everyone's Mazel tov, Rabbosai.