Q&A: Opening Talk
Opening Talk
Question
I saw on the site, in the section with lessons on Bava Kamma, a file with bullet points for an opening talk (apparently for yeshiva students) that the Rabbi probably gave somewhere. Here is the wording:
'Starting talk
1. A view of life (leaving a mark. the evil inclination). What is important in life. Great aspirations and perseverance.
2. Contribution to society (army, yeshiva, studies, action). Ongoing self-sacrifice and not something temporary. The complaints at the alumni Sabbath.
3. A Torah world of Religious Zionism.
4. Ponevezh and Slabodka.
5. Review and preparation.
6. In-depth study and breadth (yeshiva as preparation. Rabbis Zilber and Kreiswirth): focus on in-depth study. Growth in thought, or in other areas, is conditioned on in-depth study of Jewish law. Torah in the object and in the person. Study and practical Jewish law (Jewish law as the practical implication of study).
7. Making use of time. In a week, net, there are very few hours. You don't get much done. Whoever needs it should add more time for in-depth study.
8. Paying attention to the younger students (a low numerical ratio).
9. Feel free to approach me with comments, problems, suggestions, of any kind.'
I was curious to hear the talk itself. Does it exist as an audio file or something like that? If not, I wanted to ask whether the Rabbi could expand on these topics. Thank you, and I hope this isn't a bother.
Answer
That got mixed into the file. These are points I wrote down for myself, but I don't remember a recording where this appears.
Discussion on Answer
I can't write out a whole talk here as it was delivered. If there's an important point, please raise it specifically.
The first point in general; within the second point, the detail about ongoing self-sacrifice. And points 5 and 6. (If that's too much, point 5 can be dropped.)
The main ideas are written there.
Usually people think aspirations are the evil inclination. I mean not aspirations to be righteous, but aspirations to be a somebody. To be known, to publish things, and so on. My claim is that this is what is meant by "with both your inclinations," and someone who gives this up in order to work on his inclination will be left with nothing. The inclination is the basis of creativity (as we find in the Talmud, that when they abolished the inclination for idol worship, they couldn't find a chicken egg anywhere in all the Land of Israel). It's like Freud, who traced all our drives to libido (Eros versus Thanatos).
It's easy for people to think about contributing to society, meaningful army service, and the like. Contributing through Torah study and Torah growth is less attractive in our circles. But in my view, it's a more important contribution.
All right, it's hard for me to write talks here. If you have a specific question, you can raise it.
"It's like Freud, who traced all our drives to libido (Eros versus Thanatos)." What do you mean?
Regarding the sixth point, could the Rabbi sharpen why growth in thought and the other areas depends on studying Jewish law?
Because literature of thought is nothing more than a collection of unsystematic, non-binding reflections. There is no real discussion or genuine arguments there, nor a good definition of the concepts. Familiarity with literature of thought does not improve thinking in any way. By contrast, in Jewish law there is systematic method and a commitment to reconcile different sources and build a coherent picture. That is with regard to methodology. But also with regard to the conceptual content: if you ask one more "why" question after completing the analytic study, you can move from Jewish law to thought. See more on this in the book Two Wagons, section 13.
Dan, I only saw this now.
Freud argued that our drives are the engine behind everything we do. Therefore, extinguishing the inclination is destructive, and one should make use of the drives even in study.
Could the Rabbi expand on the above? I'm simply a yeshiva student, and these things interest me (and sound important).