Q&A: A Spade to Dig With
A Spade to Dig With
Question
I saw that many people cite this statement of Maimonides (Mishnah) as support for the prohibition against accepting financial support for Torah study, and they argue that there is a desecration of God’s name in the Haredi demand that the state fund Torah institutions.
And it seems to me that many fine people are mistaken about this. a0
Isn’t the point not to turn Torah into a means and livelihood into the main thing? a0
When the support is needed for the learning, and the learning is the main thing, then there is no prohibition of making it “a spade to dig with,” right?
And in addition, when there is a budgetary pie whose source also includes the Haredi public, and it is divided for various needs, why doesn’t the Haredi public have the right to demand that its share of the budget be directed toward realizing its values, just as it is directed toward realizing the desires of other publics?
Hatred of Jews has always existed, each time in a different form. It doesn’t seem to me that this desecration of God’s name is any different from the Christian blood-libel accusations about commandments involving blood.
Answer
Maimonides is talking about not going out to earn a living. But I don’t need Maimonides in order to say that there is desecration of God’s name here.
It’s a question of proportion: how much they contribute and how much they receive. And of course, funding is not the Haredim’s only problem.
If that is your explanation for blood libels, I’m beginning to think that maybe Jews really did use the blood of Christian children. But apparently there is no limit to the crookedness of Haredi apologetics.
Discussion on Answer
With regard to the Mishnah, it is certainly also possible to interpret it as you do.
You were talking about Maimonides, and his halakhic ruling is phrased as follows:
Anyone who decides in his heart to occupy himself with Torah and not do work, and to support himself from charitysuch a person desecrates God’s name, disgraces the Torah, extinguishes the light of religion, causes evil to himself, and forfeits his life in the World to Come…
There is no distinction at all between what is the goal and what is the means. It is speaking about someone who wants to study Torah and live off charity.
I’ll repeat what I already wrote: in my view, his words are not relevant to our generation.
All in all, I only wanted to be precise about the sources. It’s hard to discuss each person’s personal outlook; it is made up of so many details.
And regarding the sources:
“Rabbi Tzadok says: Do not make them a crown with which to exalt yourself, nor a spade with which to dig. And thus Hillel would say: one who makes use of the crown shall perish. From here you learn that anyone who derives benefit from words of Torah removes his life from the world.”
This Mishnah is the source for Maimonides’ words. The metaphor of a spade and a crown a0does it mean main and secondary, cause and effect? The Mishnah warns against learning not for its own sake, such as learning in order to provoke; so too using learning to obtain other things, honor or money. Using Torah (the will of God) for a person’s personal needs is a desecration of God’s name of the highest order; it is a betrayal of the most precious thing entrusted to man.
But when one receives a stipend in order to study, and the study is the main thing, and not that the study is the reason for the money, then there is no betrayal here at all. On the contrary, the purpose of Torah study is being realized, and the stipend too serves the Torah rather than the Torah serving the money, and there is no desecration of God’s name here at all.
Do you agree regarding this Mishnah?