I knew the head of the Aderet Eliyahu a yeshiva in the old city of Jerusalem that goes totally by the Gra. And I used to eat the third meal of Shabat every week with him and his family. That is Rav Eliyahu Silverman.
But I was at the time not going totally by the Gra in all respects.
But there was a time that I was trying to go by the Gra in every way. But that path was too pure and too hard for me, so I got sidetracked. But even so, I remain with the conviction that in the path of the Gra is the pure essence of Torah.
So here I would like to bring a few of the important points of the Gra. But before I do I would like to reiterate the idea: that as much and as well one can follow the Gra in every single detail, all the better.
One of the first ideas of the Gra [as is well known] is that every word of Torah is worth as much as all the other commandments of Torah put together. [I have to say that I became aware of this right at the start of my time at Shar Yashuv in NY and that lit a fuse underneath me.] I am sure everyone knows the Mishna "Learning Torah is equal to them all" תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם. Now in the Mishna itself when it says ""equal to all of them" it is not actually referring to all the commandments, but rather to the other commandments mentioned above in the Mishna. [So there is not contradiction here between this mishna and other places in the Torah itself which make it clear that coming to love and fear of God and attachment with God is the purpose of the commandments.]
However the Yerushalmi actually explains that mishna to mean in fact that every word of Torah is worth more than all the other commandments, and the Gra simply quotes the Yerushalmi.
Also in terms of actually keeping what the Gra says here there are two aspects. One is Torah in depth. The other is getting through the entire set, the Babylonian Gemara and Yerushalmi, and the Midrash Raba and all the midrashim. That is all the books written by the sages of the Gemara.
[He probably would not hold that Physics and Metaphysics are in the category of learning Torah. But like I said before, my own path diverges from the Gra and there does not seem to be any way to reconnect. So I try just to do the best I can in my own situation. But even if I can not walk fully in the Gra's path, I at least try to hang on the the knowledge of how special and important it is. And I even remember how that path helped me to get to Israel and also the a special kind of feeling of attachment with God which i think is a fulfillment of those two verses that command one to be attached to God.]
Now Litvak yeshivas are based on the Litvak yeshivas in Lithuania which all stemmed from the Gra. But they do not follow the Gra in every detail. That is sad. That the reason they are not very effective. If they would be more loyal and straightforward about going with the Gra in every detail they would be doing a lot better. So why do they not follow the Gra in every respect? Because of the fifth column--the traitors in their midst. The insincere people that are there using Torah simply as a way to make money. The traitors are often the top people. It is like the idea of the "Against Professional Philosophy" blog. But here the idea is, "Against Professional Torah."
The problem with diverging from the path of the Gra is that one can easily fall as I have seen many times. [Side note: Rav Nahman I considered not to have been under the excommunication, so I feel free to quote him.]
But I was at the time not going totally by the Gra in all respects.
But there was a time that I was trying to go by the Gra in every way. But that path was too pure and too hard for me, so I got sidetracked. But even so, I remain with the conviction that in the path of the Gra is the pure essence of Torah.
So here I would like to bring a few of the important points of the Gra. But before I do I would like to reiterate the idea: that as much and as well one can follow the Gra in every single detail, all the better.
One of the first ideas of the Gra [as is well known] is that every word of Torah is worth as much as all the other commandments of Torah put together. [I have to say that I became aware of this right at the start of my time at Shar Yashuv in NY and that lit a fuse underneath me.] I am sure everyone knows the Mishna "Learning Torah is equal to them all" תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם. Now in the Mishna itself when it says ""equal to all of them" it is not actually referring to all the commandments, but rather to the other commandments mentioned above in the Mishna. [So there is not contradiction here between this mishna and other places in the Torah itself which make it clear that coming to love and fear of God and attachment with God is the purpose of the commandments.]
However the Yerushalmi actually explains that mishna to mean in fact that every word of Torah is worth more than all the other commandments, and the Gra simply quotes the Yerushalmi.
Also in terms of actually keeping what the Gra says here there are two aspects. One is Torah in depth. The other is getting through the entire set, the Babylonian Gemara and Yerushalmi, and the Midrash Raba and all the midrashim. That is all the books written by the sages of the Gemara.
[He probably would not hold that Physics and Metaphysics are in the category of learning Torah. But like I said before, my own path diverges from the Gra and there does not seem to be any way to reconnect. So I try just to do the best I can in my own situation. But even if I can not walk fully in the Gra's path, I at least try to hang on the the knowledge of how special and important it is. And I even remember how that path helped me to get to Israel and also the a special kind of feeling of attachment with God which i think is a fulfillment of those two verses that command one to be attached to God.]
Now Litvak yeshivas are based on the Litvak yeshivas in Lithuania which all stemmed from the Gra. But they do not follow the Gra in every detail. That is sad. That the reason they are not very effective. If they would be more loyal and straightforward about going with the Gra in every detail they would be doing a lot better. So why do they not follow the Gra in every respect? Because of the fifth column--the traitors in their midst. The insincere people that are there using Torah simply as a way to make money. The traitors are often the top people. It is like the idea of the "Against Professional Philosophy" blog. But here the idea is, "Against Professional Torah."
The problem with diverging from the path of the Gra is that one can easily fall as I have seen many times. [Side note: Rav Nahman I considered not to have been under the excommunication, so I feel free to quote him.]
