Excuses Excuses

Rav Amital z"l survived the holocaust and came to Israel, learned Torah and became a Talmid Chochom and Rosh Yeshiva. When he was young he would give classes on Jewish Thought in a religious high school called Midrashiyat Noam. One time a student asked him what he thought of what the bible critics claimed that the book of Yeshayahu is really two books. He answered that he doesn't know.

The Rosh Yeshiva of Midrashiyat Noam, Rav Yogel was listening behind the door and was very disturbed. Afterwards he confronted Rav Amital and said "How can you say that you don't know?!" Every Yeshiva Bachur who knows tanach well can refute the bible critics.

Rav Amital answered "This shmendrik doesn't really care about the book of Yeshayahu. He is just looking for an excuse to stop putting on tefillin and keeping mitzvos. I wanted to show him that I don't have an answer to all of the questions and yet I still continue to lay tefillin."

Sometimes I meet people with questions and instead of spending their lives searching for the deeper answers they go off to some college campus and with a great excuse in their hands [they have doubts] they proceed to immerse themselves in lives filled with licentiousness. If a person has questions it behooves him to learn Torah intensely until he resolves them. And if he does believe, then of course he should spend his life involved in intense Torah study.

[From the book Be'emunato]

We should be zoche VERY SOON to ubeela hamaves lanetzach and people should STOP DYING ALREADY!!