Rav Elazar Menachem Shach

I added an idea here about an idea of Rav Elazar Menachem Shach of Yeshivat Ponovitch.
In short there is question in the Rambam.
First let me say  the Etrogs on an  Etrog tree do not ripen all at once. They can stay on the tree for years. So there is a question what to do about Maasar [tithes]? The Rambam goes with the opinion you go by the time the etrog was picked. But he also says an etrog that goes from the 6th year into the 7th is obligated in tithes. Direct contradiction. Rav Shach says the fruit of the 7th year is not הפקר. They have owners. All Israel. So when his field is being trampled  he would not be obligated in tithes because of trampling,-- not because that from the law they would not be obligated.

I have another answer for the problem, but here I just wanted to defend Rav Shach.[That is since the Etrog has owners it is fruit that is owned by partners and thus obligated in tithes.]


Rav Shach is important-the only area of disagreement I have is STEM [Science, Tech, Engineering, Math]. But in terms of areas of numinous value, I am in agreement with him.  That is that the holy Torah contains all the answers and all the meaning [for human life].

Rav Elazar Menachem Shach

Rav Shach [Elazar Menachem Shach] was connected with Navardok. He was in fact the Rosh yeshiva of Navardok for a number of years.

It seems to me that most people that did were great in learning Torah passed through the doors of Navardok at one time or other.
And the thing about Navardok was  that it was a Musar [Jewish Ethics] yeshiva. And Musar (Ethics) in Europe meant something very different than what it means nowadays. It was a whole program devoted to character improvement. It was not the twenty minute period before Mincha that you see nowadays.

Also I should mention that every school of Musar had one particular facet of Musar that they emphasized.

For Simcha Zizel was into order. Slobodka was in the greatness of man. Navardok was into trust in God with no השתדלות (with no effort).

So what I wanted to mention now that I have been able to get on the Internet, are two things. One is the importance of the book of Rav Shach. That is called the Avi Ezri. If he would not have gotten on  everyone's wrong side by insulting and offending  everyone, his book would be the most popular book in the Jewish world today. In my opinion it rivals the Chidushei HaRambam of  Chaim Soloveitchik. It is that amazing. Deep and yet completely clear and understandable all at the same time.

[I should mention he was not into secular knowledge. And as a rule he was right. It is just in teh two filed that that Rambam recommended I have to defer to the opinion of the Rambam, that is Physics and Metaphysics.]

The other thing I wanted to bring up is in fact Navardok and that whole idea of trust without effort.
It is known that this is an argument between the Duties of the Heart and the Ramban and Gra.

If you put it all together you get a path that looks similar to what I saw at the Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn. That is that one can learn Torah and does not have to worry about making  a living. Though I am no where near this grand vision and ideal still it seems to me to be an admirable path and one worth emulating as much as one can.