A Perplexing, Distressing Phenomenon - The Overwhelming Yetzer Hara Not To Learn

A challenge that I have had to deal with for many years: How do I convince people to learn more? It should really be an easy job. The pasuk proclaims טוב לי תורת פיך מאלפי זהב וכסף - Torah is greater and more valuable than money. Who doesn't want money? One hour of learning is worth more than a million dollars so OF COURSE people are going to learn.

But the reality is not so rosy.... People don't really BELIEVE that Torah is worth more than money. If they did, then in every religious neighborhood the Batei Medrash would be packed on Shabbosim, Sundays, holidays and nightly. People would walk around not constantly pressing buttons on their toys but would always have a chumash, mishnayos or gemara handy to learn every free minute. [Although, curiously, these same people spend hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars to give their children a Jewish education].

Imagine - you have a free hour and I tell that that if you spend the next hour learning then I will buy you a house in Yerushalayim - would you learn? I would, you would, everybody would.

But since "all" we are promised is life and reward in this world and unimaginable eternal bliss -  people don't learn. At BEST they do their daily daf, they were yotzei and that's it. What about chazara? What about reading through all the Rashi's and a Tosfos or two? People's lives revolve around their money, preserving what they have and trying to increase it exponentially, with some entertainment and a lot of eating on the side.

A popular Jewish music video will get tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of hits while a very good shiur will get dozens or at best hundreds of hits. I PROMISE, listening to yours truly giving over a simman from the Shaarei Chaim [shiurim klaliim of Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz] or a brilliant Chumash Shiur based on the scintillating insights of The Tolna Rebbe Shlita is INCOMPARABLY more stimulating for the mind and soul than watching a guy holding a mike on stage and singing over and over again יש תקוה - yet the יש תקוה will be thousands of times more popular. People want to be ENTERTAINED but lose out on fulfilling their purpose on earth, namely, getting to the depths of dvar Hashem and thereby growing in their Yiras Shmayim and Dveykus Bashem.

Do we always FEEL dveykus when we learn? No. But that is only because our intensely powerful connection to our body and it's senses dulls our connection to our soul and what is real. A daf gemara, a Tosfos with a Reb Chaim, an Ohr HaChaim Ha-kadosh and a Sfas Emes is what our soul REALLY needs. Not another meal at a restaurant or even Jewish music [not to belittle the spiritual value of music and I personally LOVE music but it has it's limits, time and place].

OR - people go to blogs that either discuss nonsense or [if they are written by presently or formerly "religious" people] slam gedolei Torah, Lomdei Torah and Ovdei Hashem. According to these blogs, man was created to be Modern Orthodox, to be ignorant of Torah [because he is busy mastering "madda"], to watch TV and movies, to follow sports, to believe in evolution.... and also to wear tefillin and say Hallel on Rosh Chodesh and Yom Ha-atzmaut. All that is wrong with the world is "Charedi" and if the gedolim would just read these blogs they would learn that the Rambam was Modern Orthodox and that it is sinful to devote one's life to kirvas Hashem. The true tzadikim are not the Talmidei Chachomim and Ovdei Hashem who are shomer einayim and pihem but those who attend college and serve in the Israeli army [I appreciate and love our chayalim but that is not the point]. עפ"ל.

Why do people read this silliness and blasphemy when they instead could be delving into a deep Maharal or deep shtikel in the Ayn Ayah of Rav Kook who was a Tzadik Amiti, K'dosh Hashem?

A perplexing wonder. It also causes this writer tremendous anguish. So please sweetest friends! This Shavuos let us accept upon ourselves the pleasant but very demanding yoke of Torah. Let us add learning sedarim to our day, let us stop wasting time. The Knicks will play whether you follow them or not. It will be OK. Let us support those who live in poverty because they want to live for a higher purpose than anything the body can offer. Let us appreciate the great contribution that the Lomdei Torah make to the world [learn for example the Maharal Nesiv Hatorah and the fourth shaar of Nefesh Hachaim].

You will be amply rewarded in both this and the next worlds. It will also be the ideal example for your children. EVERYBODY knows that children who are real bnei Torah are the best children because they are driven with purpose and cognizant of the requirements of Kibbud Av V'aim. You will elevate your wife and bring your marriage to the next level. EVERYTHING will change. Torah is unbelievably potent.

Taste and see...!!:-)

Bi-ahava rabba,
Me

PS - An exposition of the nature of the obligation to learn - here. On yutorah I have numerous delicious shiurim on the topic BS"D.

לזכות ידידי אהובי ר' דניאל שמחה בן חוה רייזל לברכה והצלחה וכל טוב סלה!!