12:14 PM
Gil Student
by Joel Rich
Opening – don’t listen to Rabbis back home who tell you that you have to adjust which he defines as compromising – swing back to middle.
Know your enemy (the environment = “out country” {for non-Vietnam era readers – that’s the opposite of “in-country” – in this context Rome vs. Jerusalem [for Zionist history buffs]}, have a plan and have guts.
The plan 1) your room should be a makom kadosh; 2) have a good chaver; 3) keep Shabbat spiritually too; 4) have a Rav; 5) start and end each day with learning; 6) have kviut in learning; 7) have a bet medrash.
Can’t argue with the plan but one might walk away thinking that a 19-year old who spent a year completely in learning on someone else’s dime will never have to make any adjustments. V’ein kan makom l haarech – but we can in the comments if you like.
Click here to read more
Dedicated by me to Professor Gerald Lambeau, in a certain way my soul mate – can anyone guess why?
Hint: Good Will Hunting
How to understand Tanur Shel achnai; (my summary)
1. Sociological – need for central order overrides need for absolute truth.
2. Legal – Absolute truth only exists when bet din decides it
3. Physics – Truth is a probability distribution function which quantum physics tells us is resolved by our observation.
Interesting insights to the uninitiated (meaning me) on the use of biblical poetry.
Some practical Shailot. Can a rabbi ask talmidim to tattle on each other? R’MF – no, it’s teaching Lashon hara (unless 100% Lshem Shamayim), R. Sternbuch disagrees – you can explain the specifics to talmidim.
Can a rabbi give a meshulach names? Yes.
Question (me): What if Baalei Batim specifically ask not to be exposed?
Good basics – some specifics on calc’s and what you can use $ for.
Survey of Jewish sources on permission to heal, doctors fees and resource allocation.
R’A Lichtenstein on R’YBS. The title is not expressive of the power of the presentation. Kodshim within Brisk as representative of true “Ishma” learning and as the “Hakrava”, drawing near, that HKB”H wants of us per R’YBS – giving and sacrifice.
R’Kook and R’YBS from similar background. Yet, R’Kook focused on the mystical and R’YBS on the halachic tradition. Both were dialectical thinkers. R’Kook synthesized the dialectic and viewed tshuva as a perfection of one’s inner self; R’YBS lived with the dialectic and viewed Tshuva as remaking oneself.
Fascinating insight into R’YBS’s experience of illness and the impact on his thought.
How hard do you have to work for your employer? What breaks can you take? Can you use office supplies? Answer – it depends on the employer’s Employee Value Proposition [me – I make a living from such things as EVP’s!]
Sometimes you have to give people a chance to fail.
Not just to a physical place but spiritual journey as well. Why didn’t HKB”H tell him where to go? (or did he?). If not, how did he know? R’YBS on Abraham demonstrating the Jews native attraction to kedusha and Jerusalem being the lodestone. [country roads take me home, to the place I belong]
Torah’s seeming ambivalence? It’s a tool for self-control (me – not an extra credit project).
If an error in one of the five books of Moses, can you still use that scroll for reading in a different book? (maybe)
Discussion of the basics. Nice insight from R’YBS on communal vs. individual responsibilities.
Review of some of the basics. Interesting thoughts on general issue of do we say shechiyanu today on fruits or clothes (me – I guess that one isn’t inherent in the briah). Also, Brisker kula on not fasting based on we’re all like choleh shein bo sakana and why we can’t rely on it without accepting Brisker chumrot (me – I guess this one is inherent in the briah, or is it an argument (gasp!) in mitziut?)
The God, mashiach ben Yosef and Yerushalayim. R’Kahn was very enthusiastic about these insights.
R’Akiva’s message – the dynamic tension of the universal and particular messages of Judaism.
Yetzer hara – is it mans’ primary nature? Nature of the world to come.
