My question is - How do we take a generation of children who are being raised on the Internet, twitter, Instagram, Facebook etc. etc. and plant them firmly in the Beis Medrash, where are no graphics, no instant gratification, no constant amusement, no games etc. etc. How can you get people today to go through a 20 page simman on a complicated, deep sugya or halachic question?
This week was the yahrtzeit of HaGaon HaGadol Bi-yoseir HaRav Dovid Yitzchak Mann ztz"l who passed away just a few years ago. I am not one to judge but in my mind he was a least a cut above just about every Rosh Yeshiva or Rav in our time and many many cuts above most of them. It is just beyond human belief what an incredible lamdan and talmid chochom he was. There are many people who are far more famous than he [the proof is that you probably never heard of him until I just mentioned his name...] who weren't near his level in learning. OF COURSE we respect and revere every person who learns Torah and is a talmid chochom and Baruch Hashem our generation has been blessed with many great talmidei chachomim but Rav Mann was in a league of his own. But his sefarim are not popular. Why not? They are SOOO GOOOODD. Yes, but they are loooonnngggg and compleeeeeex and deeeepppp. Just getting through all of his question on the gemara or Rambam is an accomplishment. And then he answers all 14 questions - while taking care of another 11 on the way.
I once received an email from a friend, an avreich in kollel, imploring me to stop sending my weekly parsha sheet. Too long. Too complicated. If I have a short, quick, easy vort I should send it to him. He is a good person - much better than me. He learns Torah - all the time.. But he - like all of us - are products of this generation and that is a challenge we must overcome. [I stopped sending to him and also stopped sending to all of those who didn't want to hurt my feelings by flat out telling me that they never open it up and I am wasting my time sending it to them]. That is not to say that what I print every week is the gold standard. There is much better out there. I am just giving an example of how hard it is for people to expend extended mental efforts in learning.
First we have to understand the myriad of ways our culture and society affect us and then devise strategies to transcend it.
What yeshivos and kollelim do today to get people to learn with diligence is to give incentive$.
People who need it - need it. But lishmah it is not...
People today like to buy the various glossy "religious" magazines and read them instead of learning. There are definitely worse things to read. It is not the end of the world [neither is the fact that they don't print pictures of women which for some has replaced world hunger and disease as our greatest problem in the eyes of numerous bloggers and "post"ers]. They are attractive - graphics, many many color pictures, interesting ads, stories etc. etc. but require almost no mental exertion. Like I said, not the end of the world. People need down time to chill. But it is not like after "chilling" people get up and go to the Beis Medrash and have a seder to learn through the entire Ktzos Hachoshen cover to cover. After chillin' with the mag. - they chill in other ways....
Anyway - a clarion call to learn Torah with toil and diligence!!!
Anyway - a clarion call to learn Torah with toil and diligence!!!
