The most important point I learned in Shar Yashuv is the importance of learning Torah. But it was not just something that I read about but saw in practice. Later in the Mir was where I learned about trust in God without doing any work.
This came to me more or less in the sense that I became clear to me that learning Torah as a primary goal is, in fact, the world view of authentic Torah--not just made up out of thin air after the Litvak yeshivas made it a central point.
But I do not recall that trust was emphasized in Shar Yashuv. I would have to say that it was specifically at the Mir in NY that the idea of trust in God was emphasized or at least was an undercurrent.
[The idea that learning Torah is the prime goal definitively was not accepted by the secular world. But the idea that work was this great ennobling endeavor made little sense to me.]
[You can see how work became considered the highest goal in life during the revolutionary movements of the 1800's. The peak of that thought was Marxism. The rigorously worked out system. But even after reading Marx's Communist Manifesto and other leftist writings, I still could not see their point. It seemed oddly naive. However I can understand that the revolutionary movements were dealing with a whole different set of problems in which they saw the overthrow of the ruling class and establishing the rule of the proletariat as the highest goal. But growing up in the USA, I simply did not see the same kind of problems that the communists were facing. Maybe if I had grown up in Europe or Eastern Europe in the 1800's I would seen the point of Marx differently.]
It is possible for people to abuse this doctrine of the importance of learning Torah to try to get money from others because of their "supposed learning." But here I am just dealing with the actual doctrine of Torah, not whether it can be abused. Anything in Torah can easily be abused.
In any case the place that you see this idea of learning Torah most directly is in the Nefesh HaHaim. But the Mishna itself is the most obvious source. תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם Learning Torah is equal in itself to all the other commandments. And the Yerushalmi says "even one word"
This came to me more or less in the sense that I became clear to me that learning Torah as a primary goal is, in fact, the world view of authentic Torah--not just made up out of thin air after the Litvak yeshivas made it a central point.
But I do not recall that trust was emphasized in Shar Yashuv. I would have to say that it was specifically at the Mir in NY that the idea of trust in God was emphasized or at least was an undercurrent.
[The idea that learning Torah is the prime goal definitively was not accepted by the secular world. But the idea that work was this great ennobling endeavor made little sense to me.]
[You can see how work became considered the highest goal in life during the revolutionary movements of the 1800's. The peak of that thought was Marxism. The rigorously worked out system. But even after reading Marx's Communist Manifesto and other leftist writings, I still could not see their point. It seemed oddly naive. However I can understand that the revolutionary movements were dealing with a whole different set of problems in which they saw the overthrow of the ruling class and establishing the rule of the proletariat as the highest goal. But growing up in the USA, I simply did not see the same kind of problems that the communists were facing. Maybe if I had grown up in Europe or Eastern Europe in the 1800's I would seen the point of Marx differently.]
It is possible for people to abuse this doctrine of the importance of learning Torah to try to get money from others because of their "supposed learning." But here I am just dealing with the actual doctrine of Torah, not whether it can be abused. Anything in Torah can easily be abused.
In any case the place that you see this idea of learning Torah most directly is in the Nefesh HaHaim. But the Mishna itself is the most obvious source. תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם Learning Torah is equal in itself to all the other commandments. And the Yerushalmi says "even one word"
