And therefore it's of the utmost necessity to keep away from shallow and foolish people, from leitzim. It doesn't mean people who murder or people even who make fire on Shabbos. It means people who don’t study Torah; people who don’t appreciate that it’s in the Torah where a Jew finds all his idealism, all his excitement, all his sense of what’s important. People who don't study Torah are considered as leitzim because without Torah it’s impossible to not minimize what’s important.
And that’s what Dovid Hamelech said, ‘You’re not a leitz ֹוˆ¿פ∆ח 'ה ַ̇רֹו ̇¿ּב םƒ‡ יƒּכ – only if the Torah of Hashem is your cheifetz, your desire.” Not just something you think about on the side, a book to look into once in a while. He needs to find a heter to do something, so he looks in. No, that’s nothing. Cheftzo means it’s his desire to look into the Torah because he knows that the Toras Hashem is the only way to not be a leitz. He understands that that’s his road to being ois leitz; if you want to travel the road of idealism in this world, of valuing the things that are valuable and not undervaluing, the only road to take is ֹוˆ¿פ∆ח 'ה ַ̇רֹו ̇¿ּב.
And once you understand that, so you’re not interested in anything else. הָל¿יָלָו םָמֹיו ה∆ּ‚¿ה∆י ֹו ָ̇רֹו ̇¿בּו – As much as you possibly can, you’re always looking into the Torah. Day and night you’re busy with it because that’s the only place to find out what’s important.
Toras Nashim
So the ladies will ask, where do we come in? The answer is, there’s a big Torah for a girl to learn, a tremendous Torah. A girl doesn’t learn technicalities of the Torah that are not l’maaseh but the things that she has to know are endless. The halachos she has to know are endless – studying halacha makes a person not a leitz because suddenly things that were till now unimportant become most important.
And besides all the halachos, she has to know the Torah of good character; middos tovos is a tremendous subject. The Torah of emunah and daas Hashem is an endless subject. There is so much to learn about that; so much to study, so many things to learn. Like the Gra used to say to his daughters; he told them that they should always learn mussar seforim – all the mussar seforim are available to girls. Today it’s available in English – there’s no excuse for anyone to be a leitz.
Bittul Torah = Leitzanus
That’s why Rabbeinu Yonah says that when people have time to learn and instead they waste their time for something else, that's called leitzanus. If you have opportunity to learn, he says, and you don't do it, it shows that it's not so important to learn. It’s not important to you to not be a leitz.
“Oh but I go sometimes to hear the rabbi speak or I look in the Chumash,” he says. “I’m maavir sedrah.” No matter – if he doesn't study Torah day and night, whenever he can, then he's a leitz because he shows that's not important.
Other things are more important than that. He watches his show, his football game. So he becomes a bigger leitz. He has to read the newspaper. So he’s climbing higher on the ladder of leitzanus. Absolutely! Newspapers today, especially today, are leitzanus; even the frum ones. The gentile ones are malei toeivah; you don’t need me to tell you that. But even the frum ones, they’re leitzanus.
Frum Newspapers
How so? Do they mention the Borei in the newspapers? So it's leitzanus. They're mevatel the whole inyan of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. The name of Hashem is not mentioned once. How could you read for a half hour or an hour and omit the name of Hashem? That's leitzanus.
I know a man who is active in a big Orthodox organization – I won't say the name – and he said that before he goes out in the morning, every morning, he reads The New York Times. So it means before he does anything he's osek in leitzanus. He fills his head with leitzanus. How could you be a Jew afterwards? He's already ruined for the rest of his day.
That’s the choice we have. There’s no middle class, no middle ground. A Jew can walk in the way of Amalek, chas v’shalom, and be a leitz, someone who doesn’t value what’s valuable. Or he can walk in the way of Dovid Hamelech who said, ‡ֹל יםƒˆ≈ל בַׁ ֹ̆מו¿בּו בָׁ ָ̆י – that there’s no hobnobbing with the attitude of scoffing at all. And the only way is 'ה ַ̇רֹו ̇¿ּב םƒ‡ יƒּכ הָל¿יָלָו םָמֹיו ה∆ּ‚¿ה∆י ֹו ָ̇רֹו ̇¿בּו ֹוˆ¿פ∆ח – to look only in the Torah for what’s important. That’s my only desire; to look into the Torah and learn how to be the opposite of a leitz.
Have a Wonderful Shabbos
