Avoda Zara (19a) Levi and Rabbi Shimon, son of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, were sitting before Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, and they were learning the Torah portion. When they finished the book that they were learning and were ready to begin a new subject, Levi said: Let them bring us the book of Proverbs; and Rabbi Shimon, son of Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi, said: Let them bring us the book of Psalms. He compelled Levi to acquiesce, and they brought a book of Psalms. When they arrived here, at the verse: “But his delight is in the Torah of the Lord,” Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi explained the verse and said: A person can learn Torah only from a place in the Torah that his heart desires. Levi said: My teacher, you have given us, i.e., me, permission to rise and leave, as I wish to study Proverbs, not Psalms.
Rav Joseph b soloveitchik in his
ReplyDeleteHalakhic Man writes that he remembers being in shul between Shabbat mincha and maariv, and the kehilla were singing tehillim. His grandfather came and said they should be learning Gemara and not wasting time on tehillim.
There is this psychological flaw that affects many Rabbonim. It's called "I think this is amazing and therefore everyone should think it's amazing." It's the Rav who likes nothing more than spending his entire day delving into a single line of Gemara and can't understand why his students are bored. Don't they see how amazing it is? What's wrong with them?
DeleteNu, so they were saying tehillim. They were happy and felt connected to God. Along comes the guy who gets true pleasure out of Gemara and demands that they too get that pleasure.
And yet the modern yeshiva curriculum defies this with it's "You will learn Gemara and you will like it or else!"
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