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Produced and housed by
Shema Yisrael Torah Network
Shema Yisrael Torah Network

Opinion & Comment
Omol Hatorah vs. Outreach

by Rav Avrohom Yeshaya Bergman

Part I

The following is a translation of an article that appeared in the Hebrew edition of Yated Ne'eman on erev Yom Kippur last year.

I once asked my grandfather, HaRav Shach (shlita) zt"l how the sin of bitul Torah can be atoned for. He answered that Rabbenu Yonah was mechadesh that the study of Torah is as effective as death in atoning for the severe sin of chilul Hashem (as Chazal said about the descendants of Eli). All the more so can bitul Torah be rectified by limud Torah.

Chazal also advised speakers of loshon hora to delve in Torah. Someone who is guilty of bitul Torah is also guilty of chilul Hashem , as Chazal said, "'He has despised the Word of Hashem,' refers to someone able to learn Torah who does not do so."

He said, "Der greste chilul Hashem vos is shayach, is nisht zu lernen" (The worst type of chilul Hashem possible is not to learn Torah). For this reason one receives both the greatest reward as well as the greatest punishment for talmud Torah. (see the Rambam at the beginning of Peoh and the Yerushalmi (ibid.).) Chazal considered bitul Torah to be a more severe sin than the three cardinal sins, stating that Hakodosh Boruch Hu exiled us because of it, and that He is willing to overlook the transgression of the three cardinal sins but not that of bitul Torah.

Due to the essential nature of the most vital of all topics, omol Hatorah I cannot hold my peace. I wish to convey the pure daas Torah which I have witnessed and heard from my grandfather about this topic, and which cannot be refuted. I pray that with the help of Hashem I will not fail in this task.

Our sole means of survival is the Torah of Rebbi and the Tannoim. Moshe Rabbeinu has promised us, "It shall not be forgotten from his offspring." How careful we must be to strengthen limud haTorah by any means possible.

I remember with sadness an incident more than twenty- five years ago. I heard a speech by a famous talmid chochom who spoke with fiery enthusiasm about the need for yeshiva bochurim to go out to faraway places to engage in outreach activities amongst our secular brethren and that the Torah would protect them from the machinations of the yetzer hora. I told my grandfather about this, and he told me angrily, "Why didn't you stop him in the middle of the drosho and tell him to get off the bimoh?"

(He was upset mainly because bochurim had also been included in the list, since my grandfather is of the opinion that only married people should engage in outreach activities, and even then only after a careful selection process and under strict supervision, as we shall discuss. There is no heter whatsoever to send bochurim out for kiruv rechokim, since this can be very dangerous.)

He said that it would be the beginning of the destruction of Torah to interrupt bochurim from their studies and send them out of the beis hamedrash.

Before sending bochurim to various activities during bein hazmanim one has to first make sure beyond any doubt that the bochur will be in a suitable Yeshiva environment all the time, in which there are sedorim for learning, tefilloh and mussar. Anyone who does not check this out properly will be responsible for the consequences. Even if these conditions are present, such activities are not meant for all bochurim, but only for those for whom there would not be a decline in their standard of learning and avodas Hashem.

My grandfather told a talmid chochom on a subsequent occasion, "Anyone who sends yeshiva bochurim to settlements, villages and other places for outreach work without supervision and a suitable framework does not understand the nature of a yeshiva!"

He added that even if it will be claimed that bochurim anyway are to be found in unsuitable places during bein hazmanim, that is beyond our control and it is not possible to check everybody's activities in his private life. However, if we organize a certain activity the responsibility is entirely ours, and if bochurim are without any framework or guidance, it is impossible to supervise them.

We see from this how seriously he related to any slight breach in the Torah fortresses of the yeshivas, and that we have to be moser nefesh for them, since they are our lifeline and our future depends on them.

An item recently appeared in the media about someone that had a false dream dressed up in the cloak of kedushoh, from which he drew a daring conclusion, which is having a growing influence, that it was a mitzvas asei shehazman gromo and a holy duty to take everybody away from their daled amos of Torah learning.

If we hold our peace at this time and listen to that dreamer, this may in the course of time become accepted in the yeshivas as a great mitzvah, and we will all leave the Yeshivas and kollelim collectively. Instead of being immersed in Torah, we will be having discussions and arguments with our secular brethren who are far removed from Torah and mitzvos. In the long term the doors of the botei medrash would close chas vesholom and the last spark of the Jewish nation would become extinguished.

If only a few of the thousand who go in to hear mikro, mishna and gemora are missing, then that one special rov who would have come out of that thousand will not materialize. The vitality of the nation would gradually become diminished, and its powers of resistance would disappear altogether, especially considering the fact that this is a broken nation, with so many of its precious ones, the majority of the cream of the nation, having been cut off in the terrible churban. The quality of our yedias haTorah and our general spiritual state have deteriorated significantly since those events.

How dangerous it is to make a sweeping statement declaring that everybody is duty bound to engage in outreach activities, especially for the youngsters, who may be only too happy to receive such messages [for the wrong reasons]. Who can foretell the terrible results of such a statement, especially when we are experiencing such horrendous events, when Jewish blood is shed like water, and people live in constant fear.

There is a Netziv, well-known in the yeshiva world, which says that through limud haTorah Eretz Yisroel too changes its original nature and does not spew out those who defy His will and defile it. It would be absurd to encourage bitul Torah, when our whole right to remain here is dependent on the study of Torah. The Torah itself says that "this song shall testify before them as a witness": the Torah is the bastion of the Jewish nation. As Dovid Hamelech said, "Out of the mouths of youngsters and sucklings you have founded strength . . . that you might still the enemy and the avenger." The defender should not become a prosecutor!

A study of history will reveal that whenever the Jews went from one exile to another the Torah accompanied them, and prevented the annihilation of the nation. A small amount of the light of Torah repelled a lot of darkness, and those who studied Torah had an influence even on those who were far removed from the beis hamedrash and most of their homes and descendants remained close to Torah.

One of the ways of acquiring Torah is through peace of mind. It is frightening to consider the gemora in Eruvin (65a), "Abaye said, `If my mother would say to me, "Bring me the bread crusts," I would not have been able to study.' Rovo said, `If a louse bit me, I could not study.' " Rashi explains that the slightest disturbance from his studies would have distracted his mind, in other words he would not have learned the same way. If the havayos of Abaye and Rovo would have looked different with the slightest interruptions, what are we to say about ourselves? (See also Gittin 6a that the Mesivtos are busy with their studies and therefore the talmidim do not have time to recognize signatures or to sign gittin (see Rashi and Tosafos (ibid.)).

Chazal say that talmud Torah is greater than saving lives. In other words, one should not abandon frameworks of Torah studies for the sake of saving lives, because Torah study is most important and supersedes everything. There are certain rules about this, and it is up to the gedolim to make rulings on the matter. The Nefesh HaChaim cites the Chazal in his book: "You make men as the fishes of the sea," similarly people who abandon their Torah studies, die immediately. It says in Chagigah 5b that Hakodosh Boruch Hu sheds tears every day for the sin of bitul Torah, and notice how far Chazal went by ruling that one should not say asuta ("Bless you") in the beis hamedrash because of bitul Torah. The yetzer hora always blinds us by claiming that "by annulling the Torah we observe it." The truth is that only the gedolim are able to decide when to apply this principle.

Rav Refoel Wolf, who heard a lot from my grandfather about these matters, told me that my grandfather always expressed his misgivings about convincing people to engage in kiruv rechokim since such activities by their very nature took up a lot of time and effort and were likely chas vesholom to weaken a person's dedication to growth in Torah, to its virtues and the means of acquiring it.

An avreich who is thinking of joining such activities should first carefully analyze whether he is really capable of spending a small amount of time on them and then go back to his learning without that period of time leaving any impression on him and without its affecting his previous dedication and deveikus in learning, or whether he is likely to become interested in worldly matters and become dragged into them, thus diminishing his dedication to Torah. If, following a process of introspection and consultation, he reaches the conclusion that the latter is true, then he should under no circumstances engage in such activities.

As for avreichim who have the tendencies and talents for kiruv rechokim and it has become a significant aspect of their lives, as well as any case of an avreich where such activities are likely to affect his continuous growth in learning, he would repeatedly state that "only someone not immersed in learning should become involved in these things," and that even someone not so immersed should not chas vesholom engage in such activities if this was likely to affect his dedication to Torah studies.

In the case of some avreichim even the shortest interruption to their learning affects their continuity and growth in learning. They have no permission to give up any regular learning schedule even for the sake of saving souls from downfall. Only those whose learning is not affected at all by small interruptions, and who are not immersed sufficiently in limud, have the duty to engage in kiruv rechokim.

In this context I should mention something I was told by a Bnei Brak avreich. On one Friday night about six years ago he gave a drosho in front of hundreds of baalei batim after the Shabbos meal in one of the botei medrash of the town. He felt that his audience had benefited from the drosho, and the gabbai of the beis hamedrash asked him to come again to speak. He told my grandfather of his reservations about this proposal, since he was afraid that this would be the beginning of many such droshos he would have to make and that he might get invited to speak in other places on all sorts of occasions, and that he would become a "professional speaker."

My grandfather considered this question and answered as follows: "Oib er halt bei ligen in lernen, sol er nisht gehen." (If he is immersed in learning, he should not go).

I have been told that HaRav Eliashiv's opinion is that the following four conditions have to be met with respect to avreichim immersed in learning:

1. It must be a complete Torah activity consisting of pure learning, not a matter of signing people up or convincing them and so on, since such activities are likely to take up a lot of time and disrupt a person's dedication to Torah.

2. That it does not disturb the sedorim of the avreich, since one day's interruption could mean the disruption of his chavrusa's learning schedule for a whole week and so on.

3. That it does not take up any of his thoughts at all, that he will continue to be immersed only in his learning at the kollel, and that this matter will only be of marginal importance to him.

4. That there should not be the slightest -- however farfetched -- possibility that he might chas vesholom become dragged into other activities by engaging in such a Torah activity.

An avreich has to consider whether all these conditions are met, and if he decides he is a suitable candidate for a Torah activity, he should consult with a talmid chochom or his rosh kollel whether he has really reached the correct conclusion, or whether he should refrain from such activities. Of course, there is nothing to prevent someone not immersed in his studies from becoming involved in kiruv rechokim. This is what I have been told in HaRav Eliashiv's name.

End of Part I


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