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
