It is a special zechus for a Jew to be part of the klal, to be part of the community of a shul or yeshivah or kollel. This is כל איש ישראל, “every Jewish person,” standing together.
Let’s focus on learning frameworks. Being part of such a framework and adjusting one’s life to fit into it benefits a person greatly, even if he sometimes feels constricted and held back from personal growth. He will gain more from being part of the tzibbur than by doing his learning and avodah on his own.
One of the great pluses of being part of a such a community is the support that surrounds a person for the positive things he is doing. This support could be compared to crutches. This alone makes it worth it to be part of a tzibbur. True, we don’t always need crutches, but when we do need them, we can’t make it without.
I have been around for many years now, and time after time, I have seen bachurim and yungermen who wanted to do their avodah on their own, without a community framework. They indeed had some good periods of a half a year or a year.
But in the end, the world is a whirlwind and blows people off track. People go through hard times. They experience crises.
If it is a yeshivah bachur, he comes to the age of shidduchim, and if it is a yungerman, he is faced by some difficulty in life, such as a sick family member or financial difficulties. There are many other kinds of crises as well.
If a person learns in a Kollel, despite all the difficulties he is going through, he knows that he still needs to get to kollel, and the community holds him up and pulls him along. His head may be spinning, but he survives, and in the end, he pulls through the crisis and continues moving forward. He continues growing.
But when as a crisis hits a loner, he gets knocked over and can’t get back on his feet because there is no one there to help him up.
The world is like a wild whirlwind. A person finds himself in all sorts of unexpected situations. When he has a community around him, when he has a chavrusa, a shiur, a kollel, sedarim, notes and chiddushim he is writing down, then even when his head is not working right, the train keeps on chugging and he is carried along with it.
But if he gets off the train and starts to run on his own, he might surpass the train for a while, but after a few miles he is liable to fall into a pit or get stuck in a ditch and there will be no one there to pull him out. When that happens, he will just stay there.
Shlomo Hamelech taught us:
אַל תַּנַּח מְקוֹמְךָ – If the spirit of the ruler [i.e., the Yetzer Hara] comes upon you, do not leave your place.
My rabbi and teacher R. Leib Malin zt”l would always say: “Be a yachid within the tzibbur,” be an individual within the community.
This is a profound eitzah and I want to explain what he meant and then offer some ways to do it, practically speaking.
The point is that you should not give up on your individuality and your unique avodas Hashem. You should rather integrate it with the tzibbur. The yachid and the tzibbur are not in opposition but rather complement one another.
A person who wishes to grow spiritually should do it within the framework of the tzibbur. Between the regular learning sessions of the yeshivah, review what you learned. At night, dedicate a half hour to learn Halachah or go over dapim of Gemara.
But the main thing is, “Do not leave your place.” Don’t break the framework that was set up for you, because this framework is critical for your success. You don’t know what will be tomorrow.
True, a person whose whole life is only what his learning framework dictates cannot grow spiritually, because the framework was set for the needs of the tzibbur, and the tzibbur is composed of people on various levels. Someone who aspires to be special must do avodah on his own, as well.
To be an individual within the community means that if others arrive every morning to learning at 9:10 AM, ten minutes after the time, you should come on time and take advantage of those ten minutes. In this way you will be special. And don’t speak about anything during the learning seder except for the learning.
There are all kinds of points like these where a person can be special while at the same time being part of the tzibbur.
We need to stick with the framework, and work within it, to find greatness. On Friday afternoon, on Shabbos night and Shabbos afternoon, and other times such as these, take full advantage to learn and ascend spiritually on your own.
This is what makes a person grow and become a gadol.
