BT Blues

 

They tell you that you don't need the world, don't need secular studies because everything is in the Torah. They walk you into a room full of books and say "Look at all these. You don't need anything else." Since the books are in a foreign language, you really can't investigate the truth of the claim. This applies not only in the beginning but after years because they don't teach you the language. The strange characters, running right to left, are exotic. They look like art. They kind of spin your mind around, and you find yourself saying, "I guess everything is in there. I don't need anything else." But then they don't study the entire Torah. They disparage almost of all it and focus exclusively on a few pages of the Gemara which they approach in a chaotic, abstract manner. Where's all that everything-is-in-it stuff? Oh, you don't need that. Just learn this. It's magical. It will change you.  What, it's not changing you? ...

 I once asked a guy, “You went to a college whose library system has over 10 million books. How did you feel when you got to Machon Shlomo and there were no books” (In the 1980s, MS had just a half-shelf of books in the entire yeshiva – about 15 books). He said, “I thought, so this is yeshiva.”  In other words, he didn’t know any better. He, like most baalei teshuvah, was like a child. He was entering a strange new world. He was starting his life over. He was being asked to forget the past and rewire his brain. The entire world, the entire human race is narishkite. We have the truth. That’s what you are told. A child just accepts pretty much whatever his parents throw at him, until he sees the world and learns that there are other perspectives besides that of his parents. But that takes time. Until then, your parents own you.  When you enter the doors of Machon Shlomo and find that there are only two classes offered – Gemara b’iyun and Chumash with Rashi, you think, o...

  Q: If someone doesn’t have time, is learning halachah more important than learning gemara? Rabbi Avigdor Miller: And the answer is if you don’t have time then learn  mah shelibo chafetz,  what you desire to learn. That’s the truth.  Mah shelibo chafetz.  If you need to know certain halachos, learn them, but in general to engage in learning halachos you should know that a lot of it is also theoretical. If you start learning Shulchan Aruch you’ll see that you’re learning about many things that will never happen. And therefore it’s like gemara too. So a person should learn  mah shelibo chafetz. But this I can tell you. Once you start learning and  veha’arev na,  it becomes sweet –  ha’arev  means make sweet – you’ll start liking it and then Hakodosh Boruch Hu will make you find more time to learn. That’s a rule, a  klal gadol.  Once you like to learn, you’ll find more time to learn. So start out now and do whatever you...

  print Q How can we train young boys to make a  laining  on a piece of  gemara,  to be able to read a  gemara  on their own, without the  agmas nefesh  that a lot of children and parents suffer through?  A: To help young boys make a good  laining , I would say as follows. When someone begins to learn  gemara  but he’s not prepared for it, it’s like climbing a high mountain with a heavy pack on your back. You must first lighten the load.  I would say that the first thing is to let the child learn all of Pirkei Avos. And he should be able to translate every single word. It’s not difficult, but it takes time. And he must be able to translate  every  word. And once he’s able to  daven through Pirkei Avos without any hesitation, then give him an old  mishnayis , without  nekudos , and let him say Pirkei Avos. And when he learns to  daven through Pirkei Avos without  nekudos , now he’s r...

We were taught not to ask questions, to feel shame in having a question. He taught his talmidim that most questions beginning with ‘Why?’ (unless they are in the form ‘Why does Rashi or Tosafos say this?’) are more likely than not to be products of the yetzer designed to deflect from a full Torah commitment. In question and answer sessions, he refused to answer as many questions as he was asked. First the questioner had to acknowledge what was really bothering him and how the information sought was relevant to his life.  Those words are from an article written about the dean about one of the BT schools after he passed away. Strangely, it is meant as praise, but to me and probably to most people, it sounds more like an indictment. You can hear how this man put people on trial for having a question.  The Torah is full of laws that can seem very strange to people in our era or actually any era. Not only that, but Torah literature intentionally phrases many ideas in a strange way ...

by Noel Gallagher Slip inside the eye of your mind Don't you know you might find A better place to play? You said that you'd never been But all the things that you've seen Slowly fade away So I start a revolution from my bed 'Cause you said the brains I had went to my head Step outside, summertime's in bloom Stand up beside the fireplace Take that look from off your face You ain't ever gonna burn my heart out And so, Sally can wait She knows it's too late as we're walking on by Her soul slides away But don't look back in anger, I heard you say Take me to the place where you go Where nobody knows if it's night or day Please don't put your life in the hands Of a rock 'n' roll band Who'll throw it all away I'm gonna start a revolution from my bed 'Cause you said the brains I had went to my head Step outside, 'cause summertime's in bloom Stand up beside the fireplace Take that look from off your face 'Cause you ain...