Why study Gemara?

Clearly, sharpening the mind is not the ultimate goal. I simply went through everything I “receive” from studying Gemara.

I forgot to say – I finish the yeshiva in two months and then I have two options: either go to a higher yeshiva or enlist.

So if I understood the rabbi correctly, you are saying, based on what I wrote above, that it is supposedly better for me to enlist straight away? Not “invest too much time in it”? [Because if I understood correctly, the only part of the Torah that is important is the Gemara that leads to halacha, through which one adheres to the will of God, and if I have no interest in it then there is no point in studying].

Aren't there other, more interesting ways to adhere to the will of God? Why study the reasons for mitzvot, when all that matters is what the ’ Want, is not considered adherence and discussion of the controversy Rashi Rambam? Or studying physics, after all, He created the world by His will?

According to the rabbi's story about his father, who was a school principal and saw that there was no enthusiasm for studying Gemara, so he reduced the hours of Gemara study. The conclusion is the same for you. It is better to enlist and refresh yourself outside. After the army, you will think about whether you are interested in dedicating your life to Torah or not.
At the time, I realized that I was not interested in dedicating my life to Torah and left. There is Torah study even after the yeshiva.

If you are already convinced that none of this interests you, then indeed there is no point. But if you are 18 it is usually too early to form a position. I do not know what you studied and in which yeshiva, but I am not sure that you encountered any significant study. Maybe so, I do not know.
Other studies in my opinion are worthless and unnecessary in the educational sense. Some people are interested in it for some reason and it builds them up personally, and everyone knows themselves. Not me. The Meanings of the Mitzvot is a study of inventions of different people who decided what the meanings of the mitzvot are. You can also invent similar things yourself.

In the name of the Lord, may the faces of the menorah be lit with a light of peace and courtesy,

To Anonymous, greetings of peace and courtesy,

In our generation, when every girl in Israel studies diligently and with proficiency in the laws and rulings of the Talmud, if you do not fill yourself with comprehensive knowledge of the Talmud and the ways of study and ruling, how will you succeed in creating a common language with your future partner, without understanding her conversation and her ways of thinking?

How will you stand up to your wife's erudition when you look at her as a "rooster among humans" without knowing her world of concepts. Why should your share be cut off from the world of learning? Will you find satisfaction in spinning wicks for the Temple?

Best regards, Deborah Ashet-Lapidot
Religious fundamentalist with too much sense of humor (PedeiMush”e)

To Anonymous, you wrote, “If I understand correctly, the only part of the Torah that is important is the Gemara that leads to Halacha, through which one adheres to the will of God, and if I have no interest in it then there is no point in studying it.” How exactly did you understand that from what Rabbi Michi said? I am very surprised that he did not correct you. The important part of the Gemara is that it leads to adherence to the will of God. Halacha is only a by-product. In other words, even if one adheres to the will of God in the Seder Kodshim, it is also adherence to the will of God, and it has nothing to do with whether it leads to Halacha or not.

“So far it's general. But if you have no point in it, then there's really no point in you investing too much time in it.”

What does it mean, why shouldn't he invest in fulfilling the mitzvah to study Torah, even without a point?

Shalom Rabbi.
The reasons for the commandments are a human invention – To the same extent, the halakha is a human invention [based on a certain tradition that ultimately came from’ Mount Sinai. But the vast majority, at least everything that is in dispute, is ultimately human speculation.] So we are obligated to the halakha and not to the reasons for the commandments, because they do not involve action. But both are human inventions whose purpose is close to it’, here through the halakha [a kind of legal obligation] and here through understanding the essence and following it. Why do you give the first preferential treatment and disparage the second? Why is there a connection to the will of God in this and not in this? And beyond that, according to the Jerusalemite, who also has a place for ruling in thought, their status should be truly equal!
What do you mean by unnecessary in the educational sense? Is there value in learning on its own? [The rabbi said that the purpose of study is adherence to the will of God and the ability to rule on your own, meaning that there is a purpose for study. So ultimately, study of Torah is also intended for a certain personal development. And if the rabbi's intention for the commandment to study Torah is, to the best of my knowledge, it is fulfilled in both]

To the other responders:

Yeshai – Even the Seder Kodshim leads to halacha. It is true that it is not practical in our time, but it is halacha. It is the revelation of the will of God in the world. [To the same extent, studying Tractate Yevamot is unnecessary, and it is one of the tractates studied the most in yeshivahs]
A question to the rabbi: What do you think about studying Seder Kodshim [or any other Seder] that does not cite a dehalka? For example, studying Seder Kodshim using the Brisk method?

Deborah – I know how to study. I find it hard to believe that my future wife will succeed in tripping me up on an issue that I will not be able to study. It is not shameful to open a book in a discussion, you do not have to remember everything by heart. And, God willing, four years of four hours of study a day plus the same number of hours of proficiency [in addition to studying Tanakh, thought, halakha, etc.] are sufficient to develop the ability to understand what is being discussed and to express an opinion.

We have discussed these things here at length, and they are detailed in my trilogy in the second book. It is difficult for me to repeat these endless debates. See there and in the columns on Bible study and Hasidism, and much more.

On the 23rd of Sivan, 5621

To Anonymous – Hello,

From what I know about the lives of the author of ‘Menochat Ahavah’ zetz”l, and Ybalhat”a, author of ‘Pinini Halacha’t’a, I get the impression that at your age they had a much richer and more well-founded Torah knowledge than you do, both of them diligently studied while in the small yeshiva, and yet, or rather ‘because of this’ They understood that they needed to go to a higher yeshiva in order to deepen and expand their knowledge in the fields and areas of the Torah, both in the Talmud and the Bible and in Jewish thought, and they really did not feel that they had ‘sufficient knowledge to develop the ability to understand what was being discussed’ and even less the &#8216ability to express a firm Torah opinion’.

I was privileged to meet Rabbi Eliezer Melamed. We both entered the ’Merkaz Rabbi’ that same year. He came from the yeshiva for young people with his rabbi, R’ Danny Cohen, and both of them went through the Shas with Rashi and a significant part of the Tosafot discourses, according to a list compiled for them by his father, Rabbi Zalman Melamed, and that is how he grew up in Torah.

Especially for a guy like you, who gained a good foundation in his studies in the small yeshiva – There is much to expand and deepen in the study of Torah. For example, to the study of ‘Eliva Dehalka’ also add the layer of study of interpretations and definitions in the style of Rabbi Chaim of Brisk or Rabbi Shimon Shkop, who a guy like you who is interested in philosophy – will find taste and interest in their abstract interpretations and analyses.

Besides the second floor ’ in the study – In the higher yeshiva or the Hesder yeshiva, you will also base your knowledge on hundreds of pages of manuscripts, which are the foundation of the entire Jewish bookcase, to develop a comprehensive and fundamental knowledge of the Bible and its commentaries, old and new, and in the books of thought and philosophy of the great men of Israel, the Rasa and Rihal, the Ramban and Ramban, the Mahar and Ramachal, the men of morality and Hasidism, the Rabbi Hirsch, the Rabbi Kook and the Rabbi Soloveitchik.

And above all, during one's years of study in a yeshiva, one meets high-level Torah figures, rabbis and outstanding friends, from whom one not only absorbs Torah, halakhic and scholarly knowledge, but also finds ‘teachers for life’ whose guidance accompanies us for many years after one leaves this world.

In short: three or four years in a high yeshiva or a heder yeshiva will not yet make you a ’posk’ capable of ‘expressing an opinion’ decisively, but they will make you a ‘householder’ A knowledgeable person, who can set times for Torah with depth and understanding and give lessons to his neighbors, and help his children with their Torah studies,

And the knowledgeable householder can know how to answer questions and difficulties that arise for himself and his children about various matters in Halacha and worldview, recognize different ways of thinking and understand them, even if one does not agree with them. After all, we are constantly exposed to debates and disagreements ‘at home and abroad’. A basic understanding of explanations one way or another helps us determine a position based on thorough investigation, and not by ’pulling things out of our sleeves’.

It is important to remember: when we ’set out on life’, for academic studies and the burden of earning a living and family, there is not much time left to ’breathe’. The few years in which there is still leisure to work on the Torah full-time – provide foundations that will not be possible to obtain ‘until retirement’. The main thing is to utilize the time and study in order and clearly.

In a blessing for moving to the Torah out of interest and joy of creation, Sh”tz Levinger, Kochav Hashachar

The words of K’Devora Eshet Lapidot’ were spoken with a touch of irony, in the context of the heated debate about the exclusion of women from Torah study. But they are also true in a sense. Do women today also understand that it is impossible to develop a Torah worldview without a thorough knowledge of the &#8216Jewish bookcase’ in depth and breadth, from their sources and not just from &#8217short books’? The owner of "Pinini Halacha" also holds a Hesder yeshiva and a Mishkiim beit midrash, and does not rely on "Pinini Halacha" to know everything 🙂