From what is possible to tell, I think that Hillel was thrown out of the yeshiva of Shemaia and Avtalion until he could pay the entrance fee. [You see this from the fact that on days he couldn't pay the fee he went up to the roof to listen through a crack in the ceiling.]
And Rav Shach brings the idea אף חכמתי עמדה לי "The knowledge I learned with pain stood with me."
What this seems to indicate is that the trouble people go through in Litvak yeshivas is the only way to merit to Torah.
When people ask about some hard experience they went through in a Litvak yeshiva, they often consider the question to be unanswerable and use it as a reason to leave off learning. And the questions are often very good questions. Yet the answer seems to be that going through what they go through is the only way to come to Torah.
I am not saying to ignore the questions. But rather I suggest that the attitude ought to be to hang on even though there are questions.
ויגרש את האדם מן הגן וישם שם את הכרוב עם חרב המתהפכת לשמור את הדרך
When God threw out Adam from the Garden of Eden he placed at the entrance an angel with a fiery sword to guard the path to the tree of life. We see one can not get to Torah without going through these kinds of questions and difficulties.
[Sometimes there is just cause for the fact that people get thrown out, sometimes not. But what I am suggesting here is that when you have gone through problems, you ought to assume that there is something internal that is the cause.]
And Rav Shach brings the idea אף חכמתי עמדה לי "The knowledge I learned with pain stood with me."
What this seems to indicate is that the trouble people go through in Litvak yeshivas is the only way to merit to Torah.
When people ask about some hard experience they went through in a Litvak yeshiva, they often consider the question to be unanswerable and use it as a reason to leave off learning. And the questions are often very good questions. Yet the answer seems to be that going through what they go through is the only way to come to Torah.
I am not saying to ignore the questions. But rather I suggest that the attitude ought to be to hang on even though there are questions.
ויגרש את האדם מן הגן וישם שם את הכרוב עם חרב המתהפכת לשמור את הדרך
When God threw out Adam from the Garden of Eden he placed at the entrance an angel with a fiery sword to guard the path to the tree of life. We see one can not get to Torah without going through these kinds of questions and difficulties.
[Sometimes there is just cause for the fact that people get thrown out, sometimes not. But what I am suggesting here is that when you have gone through problems, you ought to assume that there is something internal that is the cause.]
