The atmosphere in the beis medrash is mamish kodesh kodoshim. I can tell you – I’ve been in the atmosphere for so many years. It has an effect on you. No matter how good you are, you become improved by breathing that air.
You have to realize that יםƒ„יƒסֲח לַה¿ ּ̃ƒב ֹו ָּ̇לƒהּ¿ ̇ – “The praise of Hashem is when there is a great number of chassidim coming together” (Tehillim 149:1). Just that alone – when the chassidim come together as a kahal – that itself is a tehillas Hashem. What are they all gathered in the beis medrash for? They’re all there for the purpose of demonstrating that learning Torah is important. Every day the beis medrash is full of demonstrators. Some are demonstrating by learning Gemara. Some are demonstrating by learning Mishnayos. Some are demonstrating by just sitting there. But they are all demonstrating that learning Torah is the foundation of the Am Yisroel.
Do you realize what that demonstration means?! Walk out on the street and what do you see? Even a frum street: Money is important. Food is important. Clothing is important. Who knows what else is important?! So the beis medrash is mamish a Noach’s teivah – especially today. Boys get married when they’re young, twenty maybe, twenty-one, twenty-two. You can’t go out into the world yet. A boy of twenty-two is very raw material. He’s not capable of dealing with the world. He has to be in the kollel for some time; for years and years. Even if he’s not so serious about learning, it’s the best place for him to be; limud haTorah is our salvation.
Part III. Bearing the Torch
A Dedicated Life
A yeshivah man who leaves the kollel and he begins a life of productivity in gashmius, must make sure that he remains dedicated to Torah learning as well. A man like this, he can’t afford the luxury of wasting all those odd hours. A yeshivah man, whether he’s still in the yeshivah or not, has to get up Shabbos morning early to learn. He has to spend Shabbos studying. Shabbos night he can’t go out to melave malkas with the family. He can’t visit Uncle Yossi on Sundays; he can’t go to every wedding, and he can’t stay late at the ones he goes to.
I recall once – it was at a melave malka in the old building and I said over from the Rambam (Hilchos Talmud Torah 3:13): ל∆ׁ ּ̆הָר¿ ̇ƒּכ¿ּב ֹ̇וּכ¿זƒל ה∆ˆֹרוָההָרֹוּ ̇ – “Anybody who wants to earn the crown of Torah, יוָ ֹ̇ילו≈ּלƒמ ַ̇חַ‡ „≈ּבַ‡¿י לַ‡ – he shouldn’t waste even one of his nights.” You have to work by day, what could you do already; but you shouldn’t waste even one of your nights.
You hear that?! The Rambam says that you shouldn’t even waste one of your nights! And there was a man who was sitting there and he heard that. I saw that it went into his ears and he changed his way of life. He became great subsequently. He was a working man and he became great in Torah. I remember once his wife had to attend a wedding in the Riverside Plaza, uptown, but that night was a shiur. So he took his wife by car to Riverside Plaza and left her there and he came back here to attend the shiur. Then he went all the way back to the hall to bring her home. That’s dedication!
And so, if you won’t waste any of your nights, you’ll be able to remain a yeshivah man forever. Forget about going to weddings. Forget about family parties. Now you’re wedded to the Torah. Now of course some women will say: “What kind of a life is that? What kind of a life is a kollel life? My husband is a businessman, not a kollel man.” I’ll tell you – it’s a dedicated life; it’s a life dedicated to success! If you want to be a nothing, so you do what everybody else does and you’ll succeed in becoming what you want to become. Nothing! But if you have some idealism, if the fire still burns in you, then this is the career of success for you in this world.
Women Lamdanim
Now you’ll ask me about the women. How do women do that? Women encourage their husbands to learn Torah. They say, “Chaim, go to the shiur”. “Chaim, go to the yeshivah”. They encourage them to go, so they have full partnership in all the Torah of their men and that’s going to be their great happiness. That’s what the Jewish nation once did. In Europe of long ago every shul used to be a place where people sat and learned. Some men worked part of the day, but others were forced by their wives to go and learn all day long. Their wives ran little businesses, they managed the family, and their husbands were expected to do nothing but learn for their entire lives.
In Europe, before World War l, there were a lot of Jews who moved into the shul in the morning, and they didn’t move out till late at night. There was a whole population like that all over Eastern Europe. It stopped with World War l, it began to disintegrate little by little. But way back, throughout our history, all the shuls had a big populace of learners. Many men were driven away to the shuls by their wives. These dedicated women, the noshim tzidkoniyos, said “Don’t work; you sit and learn and I’ll take care of the parnassah.” All over Eastern Europe it was a frequent thing. Even when I came to Europe in 1932, when it was already ruined, I saw it. The wife stood in the store and her husband sat in the beis medrash.
A Full Partner
The Zichron Yaakov tells us that when Friday night came – this was before the people spoiled – so all the townspeople slept until around chatzos. Then they started getting up to study Torah. He even describes how there were a lot of Jews who weren’t capable of studying Torah so a paid rebbe would come to their homes late Friday night or early Shabbos morning. A man would learn with his rebbe while his wife was still in bed behind the curtain; and she was shepping nachas from her husband’s learning. To take the little money they had and use it for learning was a great sacrifice that the wife made. But she was encouraging him and was happy with what he was doing.
And therefore if the wife cooperates and she doesn’t demand the husband’s presence at home; if she understands it’s her success as well, that it’s her partnership, that woman is from the noshim tzidkoniyos that always preserved our nation. And the fact that he is making progress, that he’s forging ahead in learning, that’s her zechus. She is a full partner in all of his Torah; not a fifty percent partner, a one hundred percent partner!
The Other Siyum HaShas
And not only is she learning Shas along with him, but she’s raising Shasim at home too. Every child that a mother raises is like finishing Shas many times! So she’s at home learning her Shas and she’s encouraging him to finish his Shas in the beis medrash. And with such a great partner in life he can forge ahead, as long as he’s not lazy and he’s willing to carry the brunt of a career of study. And that’s what the Jewish nation once did; and that’s an ideal which many people are beginning to realize today.
Right now in Gan Eden all the men and women are enjoying the great splendor of eternal happiness because of their portion in Torah – in addition to all the good things that they do. You’re all invited to go to Olam Haba. All those who pass away, even a pashute Yehudi, is basking in happiness in the World to Come. But those people who spend some time learning Torah are far, far more privileged, beyond all the rest of them.
