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10.3.22

 Even  though when I first got to Shar Yashuv [a great Litvak Yeshiva in NY], I did not have anything in mind except to learn Torah, once there and I got a taste of the greatness of Torah, I made it my goal to be sitting and learning Torah my whole life. Later events made that commitment to be difficult to keep. But I still believe in the greatness of that goal. [I had to go to NYU's Polytechnic Institute to learn Physics and thus the idea of sitting and learning Torah became impractical. But I imagine with enough commitment I might still have managed.] See the event with R. Yochanan and his friend that  decided to leave off learning Torah to go and make a living. R Yochanan heard the angels. One said to the other: Let us knock this wall over them [and kill them], since thy have decided to leave off learning Torah. The other said, "No. Leave them alone, because one of them will stick with it." R Yochanan heard, his friend did not.

A powerful lesson to be learned for sure. Still, I just was not able to sit and learn. The best I can say is that I consider Physics to be part of Torah based on Ibn Pakuda, the Rambam, even though clearly many [or most] Rishonim disagree.]