At the very bottom of this amud is a story about R' Yohanan ben B'roka and R' Elazar ben Hisman who go to visit their teacher R' Joshua. R' Joshua asks them the question that parents ask their children at the dinner table -- "So what did you learn in school today?" The two young students reply, as most children do, "Nothing much." But R' Joshua pushes them until they really a teaching that they had learned in the beit midrash. R' Joshua's response is beautiful: "A precious stone was in your hand and you wanted to keep it from me!"
I first learned this story in a class at Machon Schechter in Israel with Dr. Tamar Kadary. I have since taught it myself to convey what talmud Torah is all about. Learning just to learn is great, but not sharing the Torah we learn is like keeping treasures away from other people. Even the simplest lesson from Torah can change a person's life. Who are we to keep the precious stones of Torah to ourselves?
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
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2 comments:
It's a great story. And indeed this whole interaction is terrific. It's especially good when set against the upcoming narrative, on 3b, about the same situation with a somewhat less positive result. I can imgine why a student, knowing what happened to R. Yosi, might not love the idea of answering the otherwise simple question, "what did you learn in school today?"
It's also particulary nice juxtaposed to the upcoming sugyot in which various sages are described crying upon reading certain verses from Tanakh. Perhaps there is Torah which can move us and is worth sharing short of those "mega" moments or verses that brought some Rabbi's to tears.
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