Q&A: Torah Study for Its Own Sake in Hasidic Thought
Torah Study for Its Own Sake in Hasidic Thought
Question
Hello to the honored Rabbi, may he live long and well.
Recently I saw some sharp comments by Rabbi Meshulam Feibush Heller, author of Yosher Divrei Emet, about Torah study for its own sake.
He argues that the main point of Torah study for its own sake is to come to cleave to God, and not that the study itself is itself the cleaving to God.
I would be glad to know what the Rabbi thinks about these remarks.
And this is his wording:
- “In truth, many among our people, who in their own eyes and in the eyes of the world are considered great sages in Torah, in both its revealed and hidden aspects, and are thought to possess fear of Heaven in all matters, imagine that they have attained some measure of Torah and fear of Heaven. But in truth they have not yet merited even a small measure of knowledge of the Torah of our God… for they study only the external aspect of Torah; that is, they do not intend in their thought to cleave to the blessed God, to become a chariot for Him, and to fear Him and love Him through the Torah… For they do not know at all what cleaving to the blessed God is, nor what love and fear are, for they think that the very learning they are learning is the cleaving, and it is the love and fear—and how could this be?… Rather, certainly, it needs no elaboration that the matter of love of the blessed God and fear of Him is something else, something in a person’s heart: that his heart should always tremble and fear the blessed God, and that His love should always burn in his heart… And a person acquires this and strengthens himself in it only through Torah study for its own sake. But first and foremost there must be prayer with cleaving and with fiery devotion of the heart, and the subjugation of all his powers to pure and holy thoughts toward the blessed God at all times, and abstention from all pleasures—not to mention abstention from light and severe transgressions, and all forms of scrupulousness, and the cleansing of all the limbs and guarding them with the holiness appropriate to them, as the ethical works have written… But given the way they conduct themselves, and the way they treat prayer lightly, how can they have cleaving to God through Torah? In truth they learn only as a routine commandment performed by rote, in order to become wise… But the essence of Torah is for its own sake: to come and cleave to the One hidden within it.” (ibid., sec. 8).
Answer
I don’t know who this Jew was, but as Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin explained in Nefesh HaChaim, in the fourth gate, your title “Torah for its own sake in Hasidic thought” is an oxymoron, and the passage you brought here only illustrates why.
He sees learning as a means to reach an experience of cleaving and love, and not as an end in itself, and that is precisely why Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin explains that this is study not for its own sake. What does prayer have to do with anything here? He is mixing unrelated categories. Someone ought to tell that Jew that sharp rhetoric is no substitute for orderly definitions and arguments. But if we’re talking about “Hasidic thought,” then I suppose we’ve already said everything. No point.
Discussion on Answer
“The righteous, even in death, are called living.”
In any case, actually it was very nice that the Rabbi didn’t know him, because that made the answer much more genuine (not that I’m accusing the Rabbi of softening things and the like, but in practice there is a difference between speaking about the living and speaking about those who have passed from the world).
It’s not for the sake of my intelligence (that’s already a lost cause), but for the sake of my education. 🙂
I would have written the same thing even if I had known.
What equanimity, Rabbi.
Equanimity is a Hasidic virtue. I’ll try to relate to that one as well in good spirit. 🙂
🙂🙂🙂
Just for our Rabbi Michi’s education: Yosher Divrei Emet is an old Hasidic book, one of the classics (almost like Noam Elimelech, Tanya, and Kedushat Levi). Its purpose is to serve as a kind of Hasidic manifesto. Apparently you can’t really tell that Jew anything anymore, because he’s been dead for a very long time.