Pirkei Avot, “Ethics of the Fathers,” states in chapter 6:6: “The Torah is acquired in 48 ways.” This week: Way #45, “Studying in order to act.”
To acquire the Torah is an intellectual exercise, but if it is only that, it is vacuous. It vanishes. Torah unites mind and behavior. Its intellectual integrity is fatally impeded if it does not shape one’s life.
This is only logical. The Torah lays down ritual and ethical imperatives. If one studies them but does not implement them, one’s Torah study is deficient. An analogy: A new immigrant bones up on the citizenship requirements, pledges loyalty to the new country, then proceeds to commit a crime. Knowledge alone can kill the purpose.
Still more.
To live the Torah is to enliven the intellectual exercise. Take Shabbos. If one lives it, its laws come alive. Take tzedakah. If one gives it, nurturing other people’s lives, the laws of tzedakah — how much to give, and to whom — come alive. The life of Torah is a symbiosis of study and practice.
When I went off to yeshiva as a young man, I was filled with trepidation about the looming intellectual challenge. The late Vilu Hochstadt told me, “If you live the life of the yeshiva, your studies will bear fruit.” So it was.
The 45th way to acquire the Torah: Studying In Order To Act.
- Way #1, Study
- Way #2, Listen
- Way #3, Articulate Speech
- Way #4, Understanding of the Heart
- Way #5, An Intelligent Heart
- Way #6, Awe
- Way #7, Fear
- Way #8, Humility
- Way #9a, Joy
- Way #9b, Purity
- Way #10, Serving the Sages
- Way #11, Interaction with colleagues
- Way #12, Exchanges with students
- Way #13, Deliberation
- Way #14, Scripture
- Way #15a, Mishnah
- Way #15b, Limited Business Activity
- Way #16a, Limited Marital Relations
- Way #16b, Portion Control
- Way #17, Limited Pleasure
- Way #18, All nighters
- Way #19, Limited Conversation
- Way #20, Limited Entertainment
- Way #21, Slowness to anger
- Way #22, A good heart
- Way #23, Faith in the sages
- Way #24, Acceptance of suffering
- Way #25, Knowing one’s place
- Way #26, Happiness with one’s lot
- Way #27, Have a filter
- Way #28, Claim no credit
- Way #29, Being beloved
- Way #30, Loving the Omnipresent
- Way #31, Loving G-d’s creatures
- Way #31b, Loving acts of charity
- Way #32, Loving reproof
- Way #33, Loving integrity
- Way #34, Shunning honors
- Way #35, Loving integrity
- Way #36, Taking no joy from issuing halachic rulings
- Way #37, Sharing another person’s burden
- Way #38, Judging others favorably
- Way #39, Setting someone straight via the truth
- Way #40, Guiding a person to peace
- Way #41, Being at peace in one’s Torah study
- Way #42, Asking and answering
- Way #43, Listening and adding
- Way #44, Studying In Order To Teach
👍👍👍👍
👍👍👍👍!!