Part II
The fiftieth yahrtzeit of the gaon and
tzaddik Rav Eliyohu Eliezer Dessler zt'l was
the occasion for bringing up the issue of shallow and
superficial thinking in Torah. This was a concern that was
shared by HaRav Shach zt"l who warned against this on
many occasions. According to HaRav Shach, it was the push and
training in penetrating thinking that mussar gave that
helped it to save the Torah world from the ravages of the
Haskalah. But in truth the ability to penetrate
beneath the surface veneer to the reality below is important
in all parts of life.
One Mussar Master Eulogizes Another
We recently obtained a copy of the hesped which HaRav
Shlomo Wolbe ylct'a delivered at the close of Rav
Dessler's shivoh. It appears in the second volume of
the recently published Sefer Hazikoron LeBaal Michtav
MeEliahu. This is not the forum for examining the entire
piece, worthy as it all is of careful study. HaRav Wolbe
provided a systematic analysis of the mussar
movement's essence and of the Kelm mussar training in
particular. For now, we shall just quote some passages that
deal with this article's subject.
"It seems that with HaRav Dessler's arrival in Eretz Yisroel,
the attitude of the learning community towards mussar
underwent a transformation. Avreichim, Torah scholars
of stature who had kept their distance from mussar to
the point of derision, began discussing it and taking what
the deceased had to say into account -- they even went to
hear him speak.
"And how Eretz Yisroel needed him! In our benighted times
when there is such paucity of knowledge, he immeasurably
raised Torah's prestige, revealing secret Torah ideas, whose
inherent light brought many onto the right path. He also
revealed the character of the generation and how to relate to
it. Nothing escaped his tremendous intellect. He understood
every nuance of contemporary life and was familiar with all
the various issues that came up. His mighty spirit united
mussar and Chochmas Ho'emmes (i.e.
Kabboloh).
"If only we had known how to properly appreciate his Torah;
if only we had known how to be influenced by his teachings as
he wished, we would not have lost him. Let us engage in the
soul-searching that is called for at this time. When Rav
Dessler zt'l eulogized the Chazon Ish zt'l, he
discussed the idea that a tzaddik departs from us when
we no longer merit him, and cried out that in that case, who
knows whether we are not the ones to have killed the Chazon
Ish?
"Similarly, we must now consider whether, with our lack of
comprehension and our lack of thought about mussar and
yiras Shomayim, we are the ones who have pushed him
out of the world!
"In our yeshiva, it is commonplace to relate to mussar
-- to its study, to its mindset and to shmuessen --
with indifference, not paying it any attention or taking any
interest in it. Nobody gives the slightest thought to the
dangers that this indifference poses, not only to our time in
yeshiva but to our entire lives!
"Granted, the consequences are not immediately noticeable.
But in ten or twenty years' time, when one is coming to grips
with real life and failing every trial, moving further and
further away from Torah study, losing one's capacity for
contemplative thought and one's refinement, without even
being aware of what is happening -- deteriorating all the
time -- that is when youthful indifference to mussar
takes its toll and is "avenged."
"One can be a talmid chochom even without knowing the
sedorim of Taharos and Kodshim but a
talmid chochom who is ignorant of Hilchos
Dei'os and Hilchos Yesodei Hatorah [i.e. of
authentic Jewish outlook] -- is an ignoramus! For what is
wisdom's significance to him?
"An older bochur asked me about something and I told
him that he was speaking like a talmid in yeshiva
ketanoh. He responded that when he was younger, he
`didn't hold from' mussar. There you have it -- when
one 'doesn't hold from' mussar one remains an utter
boor. Not having `held from' mussar previously is no
excuse for speaking like a common, empty- headed fellow.
"Now, after this loss, we will certainly learn how to value
all that he gave us. We will realize how much more he could
have given us if we had been worthy, with his clarification
of Chazal's teachings, his knowledge of Torah, of Torah
outlook, of mitzvos and of how to behave. What is our
generation going to look like now? How much lower shall we
slide, chas vesholom? Will party ideology R'l,
now be our lot? Will `officialized religion' now mold and
shape us, chas vesholom? We must strengthen our bonds
to mussar tremendously so as to avoid becoming even
more common!"
Rav Wolbe also dwelt on the fact that in that winter, the
Torah community had suffered one loss after another. The
Chazon Ish and the Even Ho'ezel had passed away a few months
earlier and now, HaRav Dessler too. He said: "Memories of
this winter will certainly remain with us for our entire
lives, when we lost the contemporary bearers of Torah's honor
and have been left [spiritually] impoverished and destitute.
With each of us engaged in soul-searching to determine the
extent of our personal guilt for failing to respect and to
acknowledge, it is a time of teshuvoh no less than the
Aseres Yemei Teshuvoh. Let us ponder whether we have
not disregarded Hilchos Dei'os and Hilchos Yesodei
Hatorah, casting work on yiras Shomayim aside --
this is our task now."
Not Just to Learn Shas -- Shas Must Teach Us!
There is a corollary to the ideas presented here that ought
to be spelled out. In recent years, we have repeatedly heard
spokesmen from the National Religious camp expressing their
astonishment at the Torah and yeshiva world's failure to
properly appreciate the personalities and the Torah standing
of those rabbonim who were among the founders of the
Religious Zionist movement. They are enraged that chareidi
publications refrain from bestowing the lavish honorary
titles upon these figures that they feel they deserve. They
also wonder why their written works are not studied in the
yeshivos. "We understand that you don't accept their outlooks
and ideologies but how can you ignore the fact that they were
geonim who possessed tremendous knowledge?" we are
accused by these spokesmen, as well as by members of groups
that have espoused false ideas or Messianic beliefs.
The gedolim of recent generations however, have taught
us that "Torah outlook" is not an isolated subject but an
inseparable part of the essence of a ben Torah and
talmid chochom.
It is related that Reb Chaim Brisker zt'l once
expressed his pain about a highly gifted talmid of
Volozhin who had espoused ideas of the Mizrachi circles. Reb
Chaim said that from that point on, his Torah
chiddushim on sugyos of gemora were also
under suspicion of having been influenced by the crookedness
that had affected him.
Our mentors, the disseminators of Torah and mussar who
have been vigilant in identifying the challenges of the times
ever since the Haskalah movement and its successors
gained general currency, maintained that mistakes and
confusion in matters of outlook are a fundamental personal
flaw. They are unlike deficiencies of knowledge of particular
areas of Torah which do not necessarily detract from a
scholar's stature.
In a talk, HaRav Shach once said, "What the Torah wants is
that `all your sons will have knowledge of Hashem'
(Yeshayohu 54:13). Not just to be `learning or
studying Hashem' but `to be learned in, to have knowledge of,
Hashem.' It is insufficient to simply learn Torah. Through
one's toil in learning, one has to reach the stage where
Torah teaches him and guides him along the path of truth.
It's not enough if we learn Shas, if we haven't got to
the stage where Shas teaches us. If not, we are not
yet `knowledgeable in Hashem' " (from an address delivered at
the cornerstone laying for Beis Hamedrash Divrei Shir
in 5746, Michtovim Uma'amorim, vol. IV).
On another occasion, when warning about the false ideas that
are spread through various newspapers and weeklies that do
not have rabbinical approval, HaRav Shach said, "People bring
them home and everything in them is `kosher.' They form
themselves and their outlook from the dei'os that they
find there and that is the beginning and the end of their
aspirations.
"The same person might go to the beis hamedrash on
Shabbos or a couple of times during the week. He takes his
gemora with him and sits down to hear a shiur
or a daf yomi -- that is all fine and good and we have
no intention of belittling it, chas vesholom.
"But Rabbosai! That wasn't what Rav Meir Shapira and
the gedolei Yisroel who were with him had in mind when
he instituted Daf Yomi. They didn't mean that a person
should just learn through the daf yomi -- they wanted
the daf to teach him! Simply attending a daf
yomi shiur isn't enough. People might be doing it out of
social convention or political allegiance but . . . has the
gemora taught them anything or have they just learned
what the gemora says?
"To learn gemora while clinging to incorrect ideas and
false assumptions is not the object. It is not our goal! . .
. Dear Yidden, it's good to daven. It's good to
walk the streets draped in a tallis. It's good to
learn a daf gemora . . . but an understanding of Torah
[may still be] lacking!" (from the Yarchei Kallah
address 5744, Michtovim Uma'amorim, vol. IV).
In Conclusion
Rav Dessler's fiftieth yahrtzeit is an opportune time
for reviewing and reinforcing these fundamental truths. We
must constantly remember that we are waging a battle against
superficiality and shallowness. Our goal is to raise our
children as genuine bnei Torah and talmidei
chachomim. We must therefore strengthen awareness of
mussar and of contemplation among the youth. We must
renew pure Torah values, establish a correct order of
priorities and prevent the young generation from being swept
along with the spiritual emptiness and crooked values of the
street. It is imperative that we do this so that we don't one
day find that we have raised a generation of boors in Torah
outlook.
