The way to go about learning and keeping Torah--really depends on your level of education.
In my first year in yeshiva they were doing Chulin and the basic approach was to take a small section of the Gemara and show how you go from the Gemara to the Tur Beit Yoseph and then the Shulchan Aruch with the Taz. This was the beginning level and at the second year and after that we started getting more into Tosphot. Personally I did a lot of Maharsha  and Shita Mekubetzet also but that was because I was really not sure how to do "Iyun." [study in depth.] Ever since then I had a tendency to look up achronim.
And that fault of mine stayed with me for all my days in yeshiva. Getting to "how to learn" beyond just freshman looking up achronim took me  a very long time and I never would have graduated to real learning if not for having a learning partner that has the kind of analytical mind required for this kind of work.

My recommendation is to find a  person that knows how to learn. But this is very rare. A rule of thumb is don't bother looking outside of NY Lithuanian Yeshivas or Ponovitch in Israel. Jerusalem has lots of yeshivas but they can't learn worth a dime.
To get a big picture approach to learning it is good to study Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's Chidushei HaRambam and  Rav Shach's Avi Ezri. The Avi Ezri is in fact much better than Reb Chaim. Reb Chaim opened up the door to that kind of deep understanding of the Rambam but his book has flaws.  Rav Shach's Avi Ezri is much more  deep and clear and as far as I can see is without any flaws. There is no fault in this. Even the first attempt to build a bridge with no previous example is likely to fail. Rav Shach saw farther and clearer than Reb Chaim. But his book is ignored for the simple reason that he was not politically correct. He insulted everyone. And on purpose also. There would be fault in this if not for the fact that everything he said was right.

תורה עם דרך ארץ (Torah with work)

In almost all yeshivas, Torah becomes a way of making money. That is it becomes a mode of life to figure out how to get people to give charity. And this is only one problem. But it is not in all yeshivas. It is just one pitfall in the system. If at all possible it is best as one goes to yeshiva to also on the side to be leaning an honest profession. This is how they did it in Chaim Berlin in the time of Rav Hutner. And it also was how they did it in the Mirrer yeshiva during the time of Avraham Kalmonovitch. Later at the Mirrer it became policy to have only full day students for the four year program. In any case, this is  a balancing act that is hard to follow. But I think it is the path of Torah. It is what is known as תורה עם דרך ארץ (Torah with work) and to me it seems to make the most sense. The eventual result of the  "Torah alone" approach [or "Torah in order to collect charity" approach] is dismal. You get a whole litany of different kinds of insanity and very little real, authentic Torah.

Mainly what seems to happen is that people find it hard to learn Talmud all day, so they attach themselves to some מפורסם של שקר charismatic lunatic and run around trying to convert the whole world to their particular schizo manic leader. I don't know why this is, but I think it is because they find learning real Torah too hard and so look for some diversion.

כל תורה שאין עמה מלאכה סופה בטילה. All Torah that is not coupled with work is a waste of time and brings sin. [Pirkei Avot]. See the Rambam in his commentary to the Mishna on Pirkei Avot chaper 4 where on the mishna דאשתמש בתגא חלף. Don't get mixed up when trying to find the Rambam. His long comment is  not in chapter one where the original statement of Hillel is found. And not in chapter two where you would expect to find it. Instead he put it in a later chapter.

q20 q20 midi  q20 nwc



q18 q18 midi [i can not find a nwc version of this]

Catch 22.  There is an absurdity in the the insane religious world . One needs Torah but as soon as one enters the frum world, the basic insanity of that world becomes apparent. And that insanity is catching--it is infectious. And you can't find a nice balance because that balance means in practical terms to be incompetent in both Torah and in secular things.[I can only write decent ideas in Torah though because I am writing down conversations between my learning partner and myself in Torah. And he is totally involved in Torah]

The Talmud mentions this concept as the idea of pulling the donkey from both ends. But the modern way of putting it is catch 22.

It is not just the frum world. Dostoevsky wrote, "If the world would be rational, then nothing would happen." And according to Schopenhauer the "Will" the true reality of this world is essentially irrational--or insane.

The only solution is to learn Torah and keep it the best you can. Joining any organization, not only will not help but will hurt. Not only that but support of organizations that are claiming to be learning Torah is just throwing away money to support private county clubs. They are not helping the poor, nor people that want to learn Torah, but just their buddies. As the Rambam said, there is no mitzvah to give charity to a person that could work if he wanted to.

That got me to be thinking about the pros and cons of yeshivas. They can be misused. Many are made for the personal benefit of the people in charge. And though they claim to be for the benefit of the community they are actually geared towards the benefit of the leaders.
Sometimes however they are made for the sake of the holy Torah. And everything depends on what the original intentions are.
Torah is not happy when people use it for personal benefit.

And the main benefit that people seek from Torah is power. It gives people a tremendous ego trip and a power trip,  The ability to control others and tell them what to do --all supposedly for the sake of heaven. This is why I am cautious about which particular Litvak yeshiva I recommend and which ones I disparage and which yeshivas I saw are evil idolatrous cults. It is impossible to put a stamp of approval on all or even most.

The best thing is to get yourself the Horev of Shimshon Refael Hirsh  as an introduction and after that the whole Talmud and spend about two hours a day on your own learning Torah.

There are people that know God is hidden from them and they can search for him. But there are other people that don't know God is hidden. The hidden-ness is hidden. They think they are already close to God. Or they think everything is allowed. The world is not God and is not godliness, but that it can't exist without God.

 But any kind of rulership is a responsibility that is dangerous.  המלכות מקברת את בעליה. So you have to draw life into it. That is by Torah. And this happens in a few ways. One is  by Torah people learn themselves what they are doing wrong and correct themselves. So you don't have to rebuke anyone. You just teach Torah, and the Torah itself corrects everyone. The other way is the Torah is the representative of God. It is his name. And with God is life. So by Torah you are calling to God and that brings life into the rulership.

The hidden-ness is this. There are people that know God is hidden from them and they can search for him. But there are other people that don't know God is hidden. The hidden-ness is hidden. They think they are already close to God. Or they think everything is allowed. They don't recognize that some things are forbidden.  But when one knows that without God, nothing can exist, and that he is even in the darkest of places that one has fallen to, by that the hiddeness is revealed. [Note this is not the same thing as pantheism. The faith of Torah is Monotheism. The world is not God and is not godliness, but that it can't exist without God. Saadia Gaon and the Rambam go into this in great detail in order to clarify the basic belief structure of the Torah.

And God made sure that only the highest level of Torah was contained in the hidden-ness in the hidden-ness. Because if open Torah was contained there, the kelipot would be able to receive nourishment from it.

So what I am suggesting is that this Torah lesson is connected in this way, that the Torah one needs to draw into the hidden rulership is the hidden Torah. That means in English to learn the writings of Isaac Luria.
But to learn Luria's stuff you need  also to learn the Talmud. Or at least to have finished the Talmud once with Rashi and Tosphot. [Not every Rashi is an obligation, but every Tosphot is.]

j88 [mp3]
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