Why study so much Talmud?

Why study so much Talmud?

This is a question familiar to anyone who deals with people new to Orthodox Judaism, disaffected teenagers, or pretty much anyone who sincerely attempts to understand or enter our very complex, very multifaceted spiritual world. The issue is the emphasis on classic Talmudism, commentary and material, ethos and tradition. What provokes the question are two striking incongruities.

1.Talmud is interesting but it is also arcane and abstruse. The effort that is required to master and become an expert Talmudist is beyond anything known to "regular" people in the secular world while the subject matter is far removed from daily realities of modern living. Vessels and oxen, damages and vows, long gone and not fondly remembered social arrangements and off-putting (not to me, to others) sacrificial and purity rituals are hard to absorb for a mind nurtured on images, sound bytes and quick intuitive turns of the mind that characterize the modern mind and imagination.

2.The religious usefullness of Talmudic information it one step removed. It is foreign to modern consciousness and requires translation. While Tanach also comes from a world with a different conception of duty, individual purpose, and  cosmic order, it bridges the divide through the sheer poetry of its universal conceptions, the grandeur of its language of the heart and direct inspiration. The Talmud, while also carrying within it a grand and overarching religious conception, has to be mined and translated. Our daily religious life has been formed by the movements that came much after Talmud. It is much easier to draw inspiration from the wellspings of mussar, chassidus, even medieval philosophy and Bible commentary than from the Talmud itself. Talmudic aggada is often surreally beautiful and morally challenging but that is not what the yeshivos teach.

One can point out that even now, large segments of Jewry do not focus on Talmud to the extent that traditional yeshivos do. The curriculum of Tomchei Temimim, for example includes a substantial amount of chassidus and many Hesder yeshivos make space for philosophical and inspirational writings. Kabbala and practical skills and halacha is studied in many Sephardic yeshivos to a much greater extent than we Ashkenazim recognize. This has been true through the ages and much material that relates to this topic can be found in Torah Study: A Survey of Classic Sources on Timely Issues (Feldheim, 1990)

There are, of course, good historical reasons for this. Ashkenazim always focused on the Talmud much more than Sefardim. It is almost a truism and much historical investigation has gone into this topic. The elitist nature of late 19th and 20th century yeshivos in Europe provides another explanations. No one came to the yeshiva in Eastern Europe who did not choose to be there. Three times as many young Jewish men attended university in Russia according to Czarist statistic than entered yeshivas (Stempfer, Hayeshiva Halitait Behithavata, Bilaik, Jerusalem). To become a Talmudic student meant a commitment to a life of poverty and low prestige, except for the very brightest who were fortunate to marry into a generous  and wealthy family. Only the Talmud could provide a challenge commensurate with the power of such a choice. Only it possessed the mystique, breadth and scope and sheer intellectual power to justify self-sacrifice of this order.

When the Yeshiva was transplanted to these shores, it was reconstituted  as an elitist institution. Of course, we rarely any longer see upperclassmen refusing to speak to freshman, or intellectual hazing of newcomers, or RosheuiYeshiva who are absolutely unapproachable for the first few years of attendance. The American environment has taken the edges of most these manifestations. However, one still not infrequently hears that the goal of yeshivos is to produce great scholars and not to serve the majority. This, of course, is unsuitable to the world in which every man learns for years after high school. However, in the parched American landscape of pragmatic materialism it still has drawing power and idealism to attract great many people to its banner.

I do not advocate universal concentration on Gemorro. As our communities grow and contain more and more diverse types of students, a more varied curriculum and choice of study options will be required. However, the flagship of our educational system must remain the old-style yeshiva. This is why.

I firmly believe that one cannot be Jewishly expert without a broad and wide knowledge of Talmud. I met too many bright, intelligent committed people, whose depth of learning I found shallow and amateurish because, while substantial it was superficial and poorly based because it did not include a good command of Talmud. Judaism is a civilization and Talmud is a paradigm of a living civilization. It s seas, islands, streams and ports are a model for any deep understanding of Judaism. Inasmuch as there is a Jewish way of thinking, reacting, feeling and transmitting, it is the Talmud that contains it and educates in it. Nothing else can take a boy and turns him an mere few decades into a Jew. Nothing else can awaken his powers, challenge his commitment, expand his vistas - and then deliver knowledge that teaches how to think, how to remember, how to systematize and organize, what to feel and how to grow morally and spiritually. To those who have had the experience this is elementary; to those who have not, what I say remains just words.

The Talmud is crucial for those who feel in themselves exceptional powers of integration of the self and the outside, those who aspire to lead Jews, those who are capable and confident of eventually finding God. To such men, Talmud is indispensable and the institutions that forcefeed it, are crucial incubators of growth.

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PARSHAS BEHAR
וַיְדַבֵּר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה בְּהַר סִינַי לֵאמֹר דַּבֵּר אֶל-בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָמַרְתָּ אֲלֵהֶם כִּי תָבֹאוּ אֶל-הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אֲנִי נֹתֵן לָכֶם וְשָׁבְתָה הָאָרֶץ שַׁבָּת לַיהוָה שֵׁשׁ שָׁנִים תִּזְרַע שָׂדֶךָ
What is the significance of seven years? The Matteh Moshe has an interesting answer. The solar Year is 365 days .Within this time period there are 52 Shabbosim. Therefore it comes out that the number of Shabbosim in a Shmitah cycle is 364 days rounded you get the Shmitah year. The Chida has a more exact answer. The Gemara in Brachos says Rava told his students during Nissan and Tishrei don’t come to Yeshiva to learn, work the fields so you have the means to learn for the rest of the year. If you do the math over the six years it adds up to twelve months. Therefore the seventh Year is Shemita.
וְכִי תֹאמְרוּ מַה-נֹּאכַל בַּשָּׁנָה הַשְּׁבִיעִת הֵן לֹא נִזְרָע וְלֹא נֶאֱסֹף אֶת-תְּבוּאָתֵנוּ.
The question seems to be wrong, in the seventh year we eat the crop of the sixth year so what is the posuk asking what will be in the seventh year, it is the wrong question? The Sefer Peh Kodesh has an amazing Psychological insight. The Gemara in Yoma says
אינו דומה מי שיש לו פת בסלו למי שאין לו פת בסלו .That means that a person who knows that he is provided for in the future is more psychologically fulfilled. Now we understand the Posuk easily. It is talking about the seventh year but since in his mind he is concerned about the upcoming year he is unfulfilled so Hashem in the next posuk
says וְצִוִּיתִי אֶת-בִּרְכָתִי לָכֶם so he knows this year and next year he will be fulfilled.
כִּי-לִי בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל עֲבָדִים עֲבָדַי הֵם אֲשֶׁר-הוֹצֵאתִי אוֹתָם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם
Why does the Posuk have a double wording עֲבָדִים עֲבָדַי? There is a din in the Rambam that a slave immerses himself and he has in mind for his freedom he goes out free. The din only applies when he was sold by his previous owner, but if was sold by the government "גבהו הגוי בחובו" his intention by the immersion does not affect the status of the Slave and he does not go free. In our Posuk Hashem is saying I bought you as Slaves but you can't immerse to be free like the din of a slave because I bought you as a governmental purchase מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם.
לֹא-תַעֲשׂוּ לָכֶם אֱלִילִם וּפֶסֶל וּמַצֵּבָה לֹא-תָקִימוּ לָכֶם וְאֶבֶן מַשְׂכִּית לֹא תִתְּנוּ בְּאַרְצְכֶם לְהִשְׁתַּחֲו‍ֹת עָלֶיהָ כִּי אֲנִי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אֶת-שַׁבְּתֹתַי תִּשְׁמֹרוּ וּמִקְדָּשִׁי תִּירָאוּ
The Chasam Sofer asks if Hashem dislikes stone floors why did he command that the Beis Hamikdash be made with them and what is the connection to Shabbos? The answer is simple stone floors in the Beis Hamikdash are needed because of the blood of the Korbanos would muddy a sand floor. The connection to Shabbos is because on Shabbos you would need to clean it up. That would mean you would be Desecrating Shabbos it is this very reason that Hashem wants the stone floors. Therefore the Parsha ends talking about the stone floors and Shabbos.