Q&A: A Joke
A Joke
Question
"Like that case of Rabbah: before he began teaching the rabbis, he would say something humorous and the rabbis would laugh; in the end he would sit in awe and begin the lesson."
Last week Rabbi Meir Tzvi Bergman eulogized Rabbi Salomon, of blessed memory, the spiritual supervisor of Lakewood, and said: "Whoever is not shaken by the passing of the mashgiach is under suspicion of heresy, like one who says: 'What benefit have the rabbis given us?'"
So now I am sitting in awe and asking…
What is the definition of "What benefit have the rabbis given us? For himself he reads, for himself he teaches"?
Does saying about the yeshivas that they are a burden fall under this definition? And if I say they are not a burden, but it is problematic that they are in a Noah's Ark of their own and do not participate with the rest of the public? To demand that they go to the army and participate in work, in the spirit of "Shall your brothers go out to war…?"
And to ask them such things about the rabbis of the Haredim?
To me it is clear — intuitively — that this is not included in that.
But if so, where does the heresy come to expression?
If some random person just says that Torah is meaningless (like spirit), that's stupidity, not heresy. So what were the Sages talking about?
Answer
This looks like trolling to me, but out of doubt I won't delete it for now. There are several different ways to explain this, and I'm sure you can figure it out on your own.
Discussion on Answer
The meaning is to say that Torah scholars are of no benefit, literally. What's so hard?
Are you assuming that if they are beneficial then that means anything is permitted to them? To become a burden? To dodge service? And to do that even if they aren't learning? To do it at the expense of a public that doesn't want it (secular people)?
What kind of question is that?!
That's fine. My life won't stop if you don't answer.
It'll be hard, but I'll survive.
Just so that, God forbid, I don't bother others and they won't leave me up out of doubt instead of deleting me — at what point in the question did you feel I was trolling?