Home Home / Another Insight into Torah Umadda (2004)

Outline

April 23, 2004

Another Insight into Torah Umadda (2004)

Pirkei Avot Torah Umadda
View The Text

This content is currently available in its original PDF format. As we expand the library, we plan to add a text version as well.

RELATED CONTENT

Outline

Avot Chapter 3 (1998)

אבות פרק ג-ח – רבי מאיר אומר כל השוכח דבר אחד ממשנתו מעלה הכתוב כאילו מתחיית בנפשו. Really??? But Besht: forgets the אחד who have the Torah... First Blush: Not to forget spiritual purpose of Torah...... But I blv also: healthy/mature pers'y = well-rounded, multi-faceted, lively interest in variety subjects (תו"מ). But – not scattered, unfocused. Real learn'g requires integration, coherence... education means not collection disparate facts...but unifying element....And so does life itself! that = whole person, but fragmented/atomized individualthat = אחד... and that = Ivan Berkowitz
Pirkei Avot Torah Umadda

Outline

Lecture on Torah Umadda (2002)

פותחין לכבוד יאכסניא – ... המורים והתלמידים. TOD: מדע only/תורה only/TuM – Y.U. and pattern all D.S. ST: 12-14 yrs ago, 2 divers emerg fr Medittrnean near Acco, 2 sacks snails, open dye changes yellow → green → blue → blue → deep purple: תכלת! They=2 br-I-1 (dentst/physcst – Sterman/Greenspan – YU grads) – EX: TUM! TOR = ות"ת כנגד כולם...והגית בו יומם ולילה AND: מורשה קהילת יעקב NOT only priestly clss... So; B proud Y J-only rel. Source TuM: בראשית-שמו; also: (רב בקר) שמואל (ירחינאה)
Torah Umadda

Synagogue Sermon

Torah and the Ways of the World (1974)

We read in Chapter III of the Ethics of the Fathers: אם אין תורה אין דרך ארץ ואם אין דרך ארץ ,אין תורה “Where there is no Torah, there is no Derekh Eretz, and where there is no Derekh Eretz there is no Torah.” Elsewhere in Avot, we read a similar statement about the relation of these two items: יפה תורה עם דרך ארץ, the combination of Torah and Derekh Eretz is beautiful. R. Samson Raphael Hirsch gave a classical interpretation to this Mishnah when he said that for us, Derekh Eretz refers to secular learning, to the culture and science of the Western World. Both the sacred studies and the profane studies, the study of Torah and the study of Western culture, must be combined in the Jew, and when they are, that is beautiful. Of course, that is not what the Tanna originally intended by the words Derekh Eretz. The term itself admits of a variety of interpretations, the most recent of which is manners or courtesy. But the original intention undoubtedly was: occupation, sustenance, earning a livelihood. Yet, Hirsch’s interpretation does accord with the spirit of the Mishnah. It tells us that we must somehow combine sacredness and worldliness, our growth in the spiritual world of Judaism together with our engagement in the mundane – whether financial and economic, or academic and intellectual.It is, indeed, this ideal which characterizes all of us, and the community that is known as “Modern Orthodox.” It is expressed in our communal educational institutions from Day Schools through Yeshiva high schools through Yeshiva University.But the question we ought to ask is: is this merely an accommodation forced upon us by social and cultural and economic pressures, or is it something deeper than that? Is there an inherent ideal involved?My response is that Torah and Derekh Eretz is a more fundamental value, and not one dictated solely by vocational interests. I would like to locate the conceptual rationale for this value in an insight of a great Hasidic teacher – R. Zvi Elimelech S…
Kedoshim Pirkei Avot Torah Umadda