The Western World's enthusiasm for using educational
software has been steadily declining. A research study
reached the conclusion that the millions of dollars invested
annually in introducing educational software throughout the
U.S.A. are causing more damage than good to American
students. This research was carried out by the Educational
Testing Service among fourteen thousand students from fourth
to eighth grades. The following surprising fact came to
light: the more time students spent using computers for
their studies the lower their marks were in school! "Sitting
opposite the computer usually results in the children soon
playing with games instead of studying," said Harold
Wilensky, one of the survey's experts.
There is actually a more basic reason: "Using computers has
created a new `pushbutton' generation unable to think
independently," claims Jean Helly, an educational
psychologist from Colorado, in her book Communication
Failure. She believes that computers cause damage to the
body, to the soul, and to social development. "We are
raising a generation of children with alarming educational
problems, children who cannot sit quietly and organize their
own thoughts."
Belgian teachers demanded to stop handing out homework to
students. Their reason: students are finding the answers to
their questions through the Internet. After obtaining the
answers they transfer them quickly from one to another
through email. The teachers claim the same homework that in
the past demanded hours of work to complete can now be
finished within minutes. You just have to find the answer
patiently waiting for you somewhere on the World Wide
Web.
These research projects point to one of the
modern age's worst maladies, a fundamental and comprehensive
problem with implications affecting all areas of life. These
disorders are above and beyond the other damage caused by
the computer and the Internet. Furthermore it is well known
that the drawbacks are not just the loss of motivation to
independent thought or intellectual efforts, but also that
these new things promote violence and indescribable
immorality.
The twentieth century stands out in man's ceaseless race to
improve his quality of life. The best minds in the world are
continuously working at developing new devices and means to
save man from any physical effort whatsoever. Daily
activities which required many hours of hard work in the
past are now accomplished by simply pressing a button.
This concerns not only physical labor but also routine and
elementary intellectual activities. Take for instance basic
arithmetic. The pocket calculator has become an accessible
and inexpensive tool used by every child. One can even
encounter graduates of the computer generation unable to do
simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
with a pen and paper. They never needed to know how since
the calculator was at their every beck and call.
The easy life in modern school education has additional
aspects. Preparing homework, writing research works for high
schools and colleges, and essays on almost any topic, have
become increasingly easier thanks to various written and
electronic educational aids, encyclopedias, biographical and
geographic dictionaries, compilations of quotations, and the
like. Everyone realizes that handing in a written work
crammed with extensive quotes and detailed sources neither
attests to a person's comprehensive knowledge nor to his
proficiency in that subject matter. He cannot even pride
himself in the amount of work he invested in looking up
these quotes and references. A wealth of information is at
everyone's fingertips. It is rare to see work in which
independent analysis and real intellectual effort was
undertaken. The easy availability of information and the
ability to make use of another's labor ruins all personal
motivation. After all, why should someone work hard when he
can produce the same work or even better in a snap?
Like in many additional areas of life, these
modern era influences have penetrated the lives of the Torah-
observant too. Lately more and more study aids of every
conceivable type associated with Torah study have become
widespread. Pamphlets, books, illustrated material, computer
programs and CD-ROM disks, intended for all ages, classes of
people, and various levels of Torah knowledge, have gained
tremendous popularity.
There is, of course, in all this a positive aspect of
intensifying Torah study, and it certainly shows our ardent
desire to do everything we can to spread Torah knowledge to
as many people as we can. We cannot, however, overlook the
fact that the general atmosphere in the race to produce
these educational innovations shows a certain degree of
covert desire to "save" people from toiling over their Torah
study.
We always had literature, in one way or another, that helped
people in their Torah studies. This is nothing new. The
difference is that in the past most people of any
accomplishment were embarrassed to use them since they knew
that such use would label them beginners. People were eager
to reach a stage in which they could study gemora,
Rishonim and poskim independently, like the
talmidei chachomim who are familiar with the Torah's
treasures.
Today, in a generation with more than its share of
lightheadedness and haughtiness, many have lost their
motivation and aspiration to engage in intensive research,
in putting sincere efforts into their studies, as our
fathers have studied ever since the Torah was given to us on
Mount Sinai. Seeing a Jew laboring over understanding a
daf gemora, or toiling to comprehend a complex
halocho of the Rambam, or looking into a teshuvos
Noda BeYehudah without any assistance from other books
and without using a computer, may soon become a scene found
only in history books. "Yes, that is the way our venerable
grandfather once-upon-a-time studied Torah," Jews will
nostalgically say about the not-so-distant past, "but today
things are much easier, so why should we knock ourselves
out?"
A rosh yeshiva from America said in a speech
delivered at an Agudath Yisrael of America Annual
Convention: "A while ago I happened to have visited a
certain city in America. I called upon a local rav at his
home and found him engrossed in looking at his computer
screen. That rav told me: `Take a look! Today everyone can
be a gaon. All one needs to do is to press a few keys
on the keyboard and everything is revealed: explanations to
sugyos, extensive references, halachic
teshuvos -- in short, today everyone can be a
gaon!'
"I answered: `On the contrary, if everyone studies in such a
way we will not have even one gaon.' "
Indeed the abundance of study aids creates the illusion that
to labor day and night over one's studies is no longer
necessary. It is superfluous to study as is common in the
yeshivos kedoshos and among Torah scholars
throughout. There are modern "shortcuts." We can easily
create "virtual geniuses," instant lamdonus and
bekiyus, without devoting much time to it. The truth
is that these delusions can produce only virtual talmidei
chachomim and imaginary scholars.
It seems that the trend itself indicates some sort of basic
defect and distortion of values. We are adopting housewives'
attitudes and are transferring them to the area of Torah
study. Women worldwide sincerely thank the miracles of
modern technology for the invention of such appliances as
the washing machine. This electric appliance has freed them
from the tiresome hand washing of the family's dirty
clothes. People just want to try to make Torah study a
little easier too.
But laboring over Torah is not just something that by chance
got attached to old generation's mitzvah of Torah study. It
is not something we should try to relieve ourselves from
like all other bothersome work. Laboring over Torah is not a
punishment. It is not a burdensome necessity. We should not
picture it as a heavy load that we must do our best to be
rid of, chas vesholom. The tradition we have received
from our Torah Sages is that amal haTorah is the
foundation of acquiring knowledge of Torah -- each person
according to his individual level, and only through such
intensive study will a person be zocheh to really
know Torah. That is the one and only way his mind will
become attuned to the Torah's sechel, and will
eventually feel genuine pleasure and satisfaction, the
simchah in Torah study.
The Torah's main segulah of elevating a person to
realize his obligations in life is attained by laboring over
Torah. The more a person increases his efforts, the more he
is severing the yetzer's ropes and is despising
life's vain pleasures. His nefesh yearns for feelings
of holiness, delighting in wisdom, and the sweetness of the
heart's purity" (Igros Chazon Ish, 1:37). "All of the
segulos of Torah study involve laboring over Torah
study. Indeed after toiling over Torah a new gate of
radiance is opened in which a person's intelligence takes
endless pleasure" (ibid., 1:2).
During a siyum on a gemora we say the
tefilloh: "We labor and receive reward while they
labor and do not receive reward." The Chofetz Chaim explains
that in all worldly matters a person is paid only for
results and tangible achievements. Studying Torah is
different. When we study Torah we are rewarded for our
efforts themselves even if we are unsuccessful in
understanding correctly the subject or if we have not
understood it as deeply as we aspired. Even more so -- as
the gedolei Torah have guided us -- without laboring
over Torah, the Torah we study cannot remain with us. There
is no way of bypassing amal haTorah; there are no
shortcuts. This is like the famous saying: "Easy come, easy
go."
Maran the Rosh Yeshiva shlita once wrote that a
certain sefer intended as an aid for students was
totally unacceptable. Besides the problem involved of that
specific work, he wrote, we must in general warn about the
spreading trend of wanting to "save" us from laboring over
the Torah. ". . . because people have lately begun
publishing seforim to aid Torah study. The truth is,
however, not like that. On the contrary, Torah knowledge is
acquired through laboring over it. Anyone who wants to toil
and put in effort is [Divinely] promised to succeed" (a
letter dated 26 Tishrei, 5751, cited in Michtovim
Uma'amorim, 5:417).
There are cases of those who are real beginners and need
such aids, such as baalei teshuvah who have, with
Hashem's help, increased tremendously, or for individuals
suffering from learning difficulties, etc. The gedolei
hador are the ones to decide whether to allow such
books, and when and to what degree there is a situation of
"It is a time to act for [for Hashem]" (Tehillim
119:126).
The main point is that those using such aids must strive for
more. They must be afraid that perhaps they will,
choliloh, be nothing more than "beginners" for their
whole life. They must long for the moment when they will be
able to labor over the Torah, intensely studying it, as the
Jewish Nation has always done.
As previously mentioned, laboring over Torah is not a
punishment, a heavy load, or an oppressive yoke, that we
must relieve ourselves of and try to find a way to free
ourselves from. On the contrary, laboring over Torah is an
essential condition for acquiring Torah knowledge. We are
not referring only to bnei Torah but also to
baalei batim. Just as every Jew is commanded to study
Torah so is he commanded to toil over his Torah study --
each person according to his level and possibilities.
Maran the Rosh Yeshiva shlita once said about this
that "the world exists because of laboring over Torah, and
the world exists also in the zechus of a baal
habayis exerting himself with mesirus nefesh and
sweating to understand a pshat in the gemora.
He contributes to the creation's existence through that
daily hour of toiling and exerting himself over the
Torah."
Sometimes when dealing with real beginners the best way is
to use tools that will assist them until they improve their
abilities and can join all the others who study Torah in the
regular way. Nonetheless, we must realize this is not the
lechatchilah way of studying Torah, and their pure
aspirations must be guided to eventually study as their
ancestors did.
This topic has an additional negative aspect.
The deluge of various study aids has made the Torah
accessible to those who strive to transform the Living Torah
into a venomous poison.
In the past we suffered from followers of the Enlightenment
Movement who had once studied in yeshivos and later strayed
from the way. Afterwards they used what they remembered of
Torah to infect Klal Yisroel. In the last generation
in which there is widespread ignorance of the Torah we have
been saved from this particular misery. A graduate of the
Israeli education system does not know how to open a
gemora or from where to start reading. Even if they
want to extract out-of-context quotes to make the Torah-
observant more despised by the general population they have
a hard time doing so. If there are reports of militant
secular Jews who organize groups for studying "Jewish
literature" with the intent to pervert our Torah, this
stems, among the rest, from the promise to its participants
by the organizers of an easy and speedy comprehension. This
is, of course, possible because of the development of study
aids.
We find in the gemora (Yoma 19a) a need to
keep the kohen godol especially busy during his
preparations for Yom Kippur "since if he is a Tzeduki he
will abandon it." Rashi (s.v. alomoh lo) explains:
"We purposely over-occupy him since if he is a Tzeduki he is
not a yorei Shomayim who is ready to endure the
bother involved in the Mikdash. Not only will he quit
the kehunah gedoloh, he will not even initially
accept it. We are interested in [his abandoning the
kehunah gedoloh] since [Tzedukim] change the
avodoh."
Only a yorei Shomayim is prepared to undergo the
burdens involved in the avodoh of Yom Kippur at the
Beis Hamikdosh. Someone whose aim is to profane the
kodesh, whose only desire is to cast away the Torah's
yoke, will abandon his plans the moment he realizes that it
requires bother and toil.
HaRav Shimon Shkop ztvk'l in his introduction to
Sha'arei Yosher writes that the first luchos
came to teach us the above lesson: "How can it be that Moshe
Rabbenu thought that because Yisroel made the eigel
they should therefore, chas vesholom, remain without
Torah? It would have been proper for him to wait for them to
rectify their bad deeds before teaching them."
He explains that Chazal (Eruvin 54) have a tradition
that there was a special quality in the first luchos
and if the first luchos would not have been broken
the Torah would never have been forgotten from Yisroel.
"They incorporated a segulah that if a person would
learn [Torah] once, it would remain forever intact in his
memory. Moshe Rabbenu felt that this was liable to cause a
most terrible chillul hakodesh. It was possible that
a corrupt person, someone sullied with wicked deeds, could
become proficient in all parts of the Torah. Moshe Rabbenu
learned a kal vochomer from the korbon Pesach
of which the Torah writes `No stranger shall eat from it'
(Shemos 12:43) and understood that these
luchos should be broken and that he should try to
receive other luchos."
The second luchos were intended to rectify the
possibility of a rosho's becoming knowledgeable of
the Torah. To study them certain conditions must be
fulfilled: it is necessary to toil and devote extraordinary
effort to studying them. "In this way what Moshe Rabbenu was
afraid of would not be so common. According to the amount of
yiras Shomayim a person has and how virtuous his
character is, which is the luach of his heart, so
will he be given from Heaven a kinyan in the Torah.
If he later plummets from his level, according to how much
he falls, so will he forget the Torah, like Chazal write
that there are several factors which, Rachmono
litzlan, cause a person to forget the Torah."
We must likewise take into consideration a dangerous side
effect. R' Yisroel Salanter once said that the atmosphere
among the Torah-true causes implications -- for good or bad
-- among those far from the Torah. If, choliloh,
there is among us a spirit of rejecting the toil over Torah,
as if there is no more need in a modern generation for
laboring over Torah to acquire its kinyonim,
meisisim umeidichim are most likely to adopt this
spirit until it will be "liable to cause a most terrible
chillul hakodesh. It [may then be] possible for a
corrupt person, someone sullied with wicked deeds [to]
become proficient in all parts of the Torah."
We must listen to how our Torah Sages direct us. We must
return to our roots, to the original way our ancestors
studied the Torah. Even though it is necessary to assist
those who have only begun studying Torah we must remember
that genuine Torah study requires our exerting ourselves to
acquire the kinyonei HaTorah.
