What Does It Mean to Be a Ben-Torah? (Part 1 of 2)

 https://www.etzion.org.il/en/philosophy/issues-jewish-thought/issues-education/what-does-it-mean-be-ben-torah-part-1-2

            I would like to address a fundamental question: What are the goals of a student in our yeshiva?  We can speak of this both in terms of his individual attainments and in terms of his contribution to the community.  Let us begin with the former.  The individual character we want to cultivate can be defined with reference to Rabbi Shimon ha-Tzaddik's famous saying (Avot 1:2):  "The world stands on three pillars:  on Torah, on avoda [worship], and on gemilut chasadim [kind deeds]."  If this is true of the macrocosm, of the world at large, it is no less true of the microcosm of the individual, the world which, according to the Mishna (Sanhedrin 4:5), each and every person constitutes.