Q&A: Is Torah Study an Essential Need?
Is Torah Study an Essential Need?
Question
Economically, opening preschools and lower elementary grades is necessary and essential in order to reopen the economy.
Is Torah study also an “essential need”? From two angles:
A. In practical terms, is shutting down the world of cheders and yeshivas, like the secular high schools and universities, a disaster for the Torah world?
B. The Sages said that the world exists by virtue of Torah study (“If not for My covenant [day and night]…”), and that the Torah protects and saves.
Answer
Torah study is definitely an essential need, but it does not rise to the level of saving lives. Certainly when we are not talking about stopping learning altogether and causing the Torah to be forgotten, but rather about studying alone at home for a limited time. In my opinion, that is not a tragedy.
As for B, I do not believe that. But even if so, one can study at home and return to regular learning after the epidemic. The world will not collapse in the meantime.
Discussion on Answer
With God’s help, 28 Tishrei 5781…’
‘Wisdom cries aloud in the streets’ — the proper place of Torah study is in study halls, schools, Talmud Torah schools, and yeshivas. There there is an atmosphere of learning, teachers who guide the learning and answer the students’ questions and uncertainties.
At home, many will spend a considerable part of their time loafing around, wandering the streets, getting addicted to screens, or just fighting with their siblings all day,
all the more so when the parents go to work. In such a situation, when they are hanging around idle and unsupervised, they get involved in all sorts of bad things, physical and emotional. If the first wave broke out amid the revelry of Purim parties, then the “second wave” broke out after the “summer vacation” and the “bein hazmanim” break.
In organized educational settings it is possible to cope successfully and preserve health by learning in small groups, making sure there is ventilation, and keeping distance by reducing occupancy to 50% of the “open space,” as we saw that about 90% of the yeshivas that adopted the framework agreed upon by the yeshiva heads and the Ministry of Health came through completely clean, and from them the percentages that failed and had to remain in the “bein hazmanim” break should learn. In crowded homes they will not be able to maintain such precautions, so even from a purely health standpoint, it is preferable for students to be in supervised educational institutions.
Moreover, natural immunity grows stronger when one is in a calm atmosphere. A routine of Torah and prayer, just like a routine of economy and work, is good for body and soul.
With blessings, T.Ch.B.N. [= low-level Haredi propagandist]
By the way, “If not for My covenant day and night, I would not have established the laws of heaven and earth” is a verse in Jeremiah.
T.Ch.B.N. really is a nice and fitting name. More power to you.
To “Astonishment” — greetings,
The “more power to you” on my new nickname only proves the importance of engaging in Torah together with others, since I merited it from the responses of two “golden knobs” on this site. If I had been learning all by myself, where would I have gotten such a lovely name? 🙂
With blessings, T.Ch.B.N.
It is well known that Rabbi Aryeh Bina, head of Netiv Meir Yeshiva, studied tractate Yevamot 56 times during the four years he was in German captivity in World War II (he enlisted in the Jewish Brigade and was taken prisoner in Greece as a British soldier in 1941).