Don't just sit and learn! For God's sake get a job ...

In recent weeks I've made frequent use of a commentary on Pirkei Avot, Tiferet Tzion, by Rabbi Yitchak Ze'ev Yadler, which I picked up for 10 shekels in a street sale of unwanted and abandoned books. Before moving on to sample the approach to Avot another commentator, I'm posting two final pieces based on Rabbi Yadler's book which deal with different mishnayot but share a common theme. Here's the first:

The Talmud (Berachot 35b) brings a famous argument between Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and Rabbi Yishmael as to whether it is better to sit and learn Torah full time, as Rabbi Shimon contends, or to work when it is time to work and learn when it is time to learn, as Rabbi Yishmael maintains. The passage, in full, reads like this.

Our Rabbis taught: “And you shall gather in your corn” (Deut. 11:14). What is to be learnt from these words? Since it says: “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth” (Joshua 1:8), I might have thought that this instruction is to be taken literally, so it says: “And you shall gather in your corn”, which implies that you should combine the study of them [i.e. the words of the Torah] with a worldly occupation. This is the view of Rabbi Yishmael.

Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says: “Is that possible? If a man ploughs in the ploughing season, sows in the sowing season, reaps in the reaping season, threshes in the threshing season, and winnows in the windy season, what will become of the Torah? No! But when Israel perform the will of the Omnipresent, their work is performed by others, as it says: ‘And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks…’ (Isaiah 61:5). and when Israel do not perform the will of the Omnipresent their work is carried out by themselves, as it says: ‘And you will gather in your corn’.  Not only that, but the work of others will also be done by them, as it says: ‘And you will serve your enemy…’ (Deut. 28:48). Said Abaye: “Many have followed the advice of Ishmael, and it has worked well; others have followed Rabbi Simeon bar Yochai and it has not been successful”.

As I mention in my book, this argument continues even today and both sides can cite the authoritative support of great sages on whom they rely.

Anyone taking the teachings in Pirkei Avot as a whole will find that this great chasm between the “nothing but Torah” and “Torah in its right time” camps is reflected there too. Much of the sixth perek is in effect an extended paean of praise for Torah and an affirmation of its rightful place at the summit of Jewish endeavour. Against that, Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel asserts that it is not learning but action that is the objective of Torah study (Avot 1:17) and Rabban Gamliel, son of Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi, praises the combination of Torah learning with a worldly occupation (Avot 2:2) on the ground that it is this that causes all sin to be forgotten; he adds that, in the absence of some sort of worldly occupation, one’s Torah learning is batelah (“of no effect”).

Commenting on what appears to be Rabban Gamliel’s harsh assessment of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s position, Rabbi Yitchak Tzevi Yadler draws our attention to another mishnah (Avot 3:6) in which Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah  promises that anyone who opts for Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s stern regime and takes upon himself the yoke of Torah will find that two other yokes—those of government and of having to make a living—will be removed from him.

According to Rabbi Yadler, when Rabban Gamliel advises taking up a worldly occupation as well as learning Torah, he is not at odds with Rabbi Nechunya ben Hakanah. That is because Rabban Gamliel’s advice is addressed to the ordinary Jew in the street, as it were, and not the night-and-day Torah student. For the person whose head is totally immersed in his learning there is (or should at any rate be) no need to forget sin since such a person shouldn’t be thinking about it in the first place, never mind closing his Gemara and wandering off in order to commit it. But for the person who only studies Torah at the times fixed for doing so, the Torah content of his day is insufficient to blot out inappropriate thoughts and actions entirely and that is why it is good for him to engage in an worldly occupation as well as learn.

But what of those people who occupy themselves totally in Torah? They are the people for whom, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai asserts, everything will be done by others.

Going back to Rabban Gamliel’s mishnah, we can understand it in two ways. One is that “Torah plus worldly occupation” means that a person learns and works. The other is that, while one person learns, it is not he but another person who works, in order to meet the needs of the one who is in learning. If we have a situation in which one person is ostensibly learning but no other person is working to meet his needs, we have “Torah without a worldly occupation” and it is this that appears to testify against Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s promise. As Rabbi Yadler puts it, there is, Heaven forfend, a chillul Hashem (a desecration of God’s name) because people will look at a person who dedicates his entire life and energy to learning Torah, receiving no support from others, and say “Is this the Torah and is this its reward?”