In the prophet Zephaniah 3 there is a verse that compares the judge of Israel to evening wolves that are constantly hunting new prey, so that they do not even bother with the bones and leftovers from their old prey.
This goes along with the idea brought in the end of tractate Shabat "If you see a generation upon that troubles come go and check the judges of Israel. For all the troubles that come into the world only come because of the judges of Israel."
To some degree this can be seen even in the Rambam in his commentary on Pirkei Avot that כל הנהנה מדברי תורה נוטל את חייו מן העולם. [Whosoever derives monetary benefit from the words of Torah takes is life out of the world. The Rambam says that means the world to come.]
The actual statement of Hillel was in the beginning of Pirkei Avot not to make money off of Torah nor get paid for learning or teaching. קרדום לחפור בהם. But later in Pirkei Avot that same statement is brought a second time with the explanation כל הנהנה מדברי תורה נוטל את חייו מן העולם,- and that is where the Rambam goes into detail about this problem.
The problem however is not money. It is that the people that claim to speak in the name of the Torah are generally liars.
This does however leave a kind of problem about how to give a divorce or other aspects of Law.
In fact in order to have a good idea of how to keep Torah, knowledge of Gemara and Musar is necessary. But you need to find a kind of legitimate Lithuanian kind of Yeshiva to get straight Torah.
Or learn at home. The only straight Torah places I know of are the great NY Litvak yeshivas or Ponoviz where Rav Shach taught. [There are possibly places with people that learned in Ponoviz or in the Mir in NY that might be good places. I am really not sure.]
[If one is out in the woods where there is not a Litvak yeshiva, then the main thing is to learn Tosphot along with the Pnei Yehoshua and the Avi Ezri.]
Instead of getting through a lot of tractates what I think is best is to work on just one tracate per year and to do with with Tosphot, Pnei Yehohua, and the new R.Akiva Eiger which they printed up in such a way that you can find what he wrote on each page and the Aruk LaNer. [For Nida, Sukka etc where there is no Pnei Yehoshua.] [The Avi Ezri should be learned as a session in itself.]
I might mention my own experience here. In the Mir in NY, people mainly spent theri morning hours getting ready for the classes. That is: Year 1- the Sukat David. Year 2- Rav Shmuel Brudny. Year 3- Rav Shraga Moshe Kalmenoviz. Year 4- Rav Shmuel Berenbaum. Each rosh yeshiva has his own new ideas on the subject matter every day that was along the lines of the Avi Ezri or Rav Haim HaLevi.
The fact that I was doing a lot of the Pnei Yehoshua and the Maharsha was not the general practice.
[Th reason is not that I was so advanced. Just the opposite. Everyone was far beyond me. But the kind of classes in the Mir were versions of the kind of deep learning you find in the Avi Ezri and חידושי הרמב''ם of Reb Haim Brisker. And that was beyond me even though officially I could attend any class that I wanted. But for me I found these middle level אחרונים to be something I could grasp.
The fact is the rosh yeshiva, Reb Shmuel Berenbaum did me a favor by letting me join the yeshiva because I was no where near their level of learning. And the saying "smart Mir yeshiva guys" has definite a basis in fact.]
[ might mention the fact that every one of the teachers had an enormous amount of new and original ideas that they gave over every day in class. I have no idea why they did not bother to write them down. Today the original teachers are gone but in their places are people of genius level like Rav Nelkenbaum.] But if you are far from there you can still get an idea of what is going on at the Mir if you learn the Avi Ezri and Reb Haim.--that at least can give you a taste of real Torah.
This goes along with the idea brought in the end of tractate Shabat "If you see a generation upon that troubles come go and check the judges of Israel. For all the troubles that come into the world only come because of the judges of Israel."
To some degree this can be seen even in the Rambam in his commentary on Pirkei Avot that כל הנהנה מדברי תורה נוטל את חייו מן העולם. [Whosoever derives monetary benefit from the words of Torah takes is life out of the world. The Rambam says that means the world to come.]
The actual statement of Hillel was in the beginning of Pirkei Avot not to make money off of Torah nor get paid for learning or teaching. קרדום לחפור בהם. But later in Pirkei Avot that same statement is brought a second time with the explanation כל הנהנה מדברי תורה נוטל את חייו מן העולם,- and that is where the Rambam goes into detail about this problem.
The problem however is not money. It is that the people that claim to speak in the name of the Torah are generally liars.
This does however leave a kind of problem about how to give a divorce or other aspects of Law.
In fact in order to have a good idea of how to keep Torah, knowledge of Gemara and Musar is necessary. But you need to find a kind of legitimate Lithuanian kind of Yeshiva to get straight Torah.
Or learn at home. The only straight Torah places I know of are the great NY Litvak yeshivas or Ponoviz where Rav Shach taught. [There are possibly places with people that learned in Ponoviz or in the Mir in NY that might be good places. I am really not sure.]
[If one is out in the woods where there is not a Litvak yeshiva, then the main thing is to learn Tosphot along with the Pnei Yehoshua and the Avi Ezri.]
Instead of getting through a lot of tractates what I think is best is to work on just one tracate per year and to do with with Tosphot, Pnei Yehohua, and the new R.Akiva Eiger which they printed up in such a way that you can find what he wrote on each page and the Aruk LaNer. [For Nida, Sukka etc where there is no Pnei Yehoshua.] [The Avi Ezri should be learned as a session in itself.]
I might mention my own experience here. In the Mir in NY, people mainly spent theri morning hours getting ready for the classes. That is: Year 1- the Sukat David. Year 2- Rav Shmuel Brudny. Year 3- Rav Shraga Moshe Kalmenoviz. Year 4- Rav Shmuel Berenbaum. Each rosh yeshiva has his own new ideas on the subject matter every day that was along the lines of the Avi Ezri or Rav Haim HaLevi.
The fact that I was doing a lot of the Pnei Yehoshua and the Maharsha was not the general practice.
[Th reason is not that I was so advanced. Just the opposite. Everyone was far beyond me. But the kind of classes in the Mir were versions of the kind of deep learning you find in the Avi Ezri and חידושי הרמב''ם of Reb Haim Brisker. And that was beyond me even though officially I could attend any class that I wanted. But for me I found these middle level אחרונים to be something I could grasp.
The fact is the rosh yeshiva, Reb Shmuel Berenbaum did me a favor by letting me join the yeshiva because I was no where near their level of learning. And the saying "smart Mir yeshiva guys" has definite a basis in fact.]
[ might mention the fact that every one of the teachers had an enormous amount of new and original ideas that they gave over every day in class. I have no idea why they did not bother to write them down. Today the original teachers are gone but in their places are people of genius level like Rav Nelkenbaum.] But if you are far from there you can still get an idea of what is going on at the Mir if you learn the Avi Ezri and Reb Haim.--that at least can give you a taste of real Torah.
