The ones who got a 100% with just looking over the material once. The guys who understood a Tosfos or Maamer on their first attempt. The people that never had to deal with the frustration of having no idea of what's going . The students that never had to work hard.
How did these guys end up? Well, it probably depends on whether or not they learned the art of digging.
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Are you a lake or deep spring? Coal or a flinstone? Microwave or crockpot?
Getting water from a lake is a piece of cake. The area is easily accesible, and the water comes out instantly with little effort. When water is available at the surface, why bother digging?
And yet, when you don't dig, you lose out on a lot. There is the danger of the lake's drying up, or perhaps using all of its water. Not to mention that the water may be dirty or even unhealthy as is it exposed to all the elements. In short, what is on the surface and revealed is quite limited. Both in quanitity and quality.
Tap into an underground spring and enter a whole new world. The water flows powerfully and endlessly. It is crystal clear. In short, when you reach the source, everything exists in an infinite way.
Chassidus explans that toiling in Torah is the ultimate recipe for success. A great mind is a great gift from above, but it comes with a liablility. When Torah is only learned in a quick and painless manner, it will not achieve the necessary goals.
Without further digging the water can
1) dry up - Without toiling, there is little stimulation. Interest can quickly be lost and boredom will soon set in.
2) become depleted - Chassidus explains that our Sechel is quite limited. Each person thinks has their way - and their way only - of thinking. Our memory, ideas, and creativity are also finite in nature. But when we dig past our "surface level" Sechel into the deeper roots of our Sechel (refered to as Mochin Stimah,) we tap into our infinite reservoir of ideas.
3) be dirty - No matter how sharp the mind, the first time one learns an Inyan it can never be as pure or clear as something thought over and over.
4) be unhealthy - Torah without effort will not give the same nourishment and spiritual healing as Torah that comes with labor.
(Of course, when the sharp mind realizes that he too needs to dig, the result will be a powerful shovel capable of reaching even greater depths.)
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Hit an obstacle in the road. Have a bad day. Make a mistake. That's when you can really tell the difference between the learner that toils and the learner on cruise-control.
Coals burn quickly and efficiently. With little effort, fire is produced. A Flinstone hardly looks differant than any other rock. It takes quite a bit of beating to even produce a little flame.
But try leaving each of them out for 24 hours. Better yet, drop them into water. The coal is now useless. The flinstone is as powerful as ever.
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We live in a world where we like things instant and we like them hot.
This mindset has been applied to learning. Why bother learning an entire Sicho when you can pick up a Mayan Chai and Shulchan Shabbos? Why waste time learning in a foreign language when there is chabad.org? Why struggle through a Maamer in Samech Vov when you get an overview of the main ideas by listening to a shiur?
But does a microwave TV Dinner really taste the same as a baked supper?
Does an instant soup do the same job as Bubby's Chicken Soup?
Does email really replace the communication of yesteryear?
We should all be blessed with great minds. We should all take advantage of chabad.org. But we should never allow this to get in the way of Yegiah in Torah. It is the toiling that will keep us inspired, and achieve the desired result that the Torah we learn will actually affect us
A Microwave may be quite useful. But nothing beats a cholent that has been sitting in the crockpot all night...
(Based on Hemshechim in 5666 and 5706 )
16 comments:
Dont like cholent in a crockpot,old fashioned pot for me...
I believe that being born with a good head is not a stira to the digging deep , getting the cleaner purer...
it gives you a head-start to where we want to go, and because of the sharpness of the mind you can even dig deeper..
make sense?
Of course. A Good, sharp head is the bigget Berachah and when combined with work you can dig any deeper! The problem is only when you dont work...
Oh , okay so this is about yegia,
for all heads the same.
Are you willing to put in the effort?
waLLa!
(again)
and no, 'dailyderher' does not take the place of maamarim but can u please expound on the mochin stimah?
and ye i agree w/ chochom here.
Agreed.
This idea really applies to all heads the same. The actual idea from the Maamer was that Yegia with a poorer head is far greater than no Yegia with an amazing head - both in terms of clarity and the affect the learning will have on you.
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Sabra,
As for the the Inyan of Mochein Stama...
Every Koach we has exists on many dimensions though we are mostly in touch with its outermost level.
For example, even someone that is blind C'V can give birth to a son that sees. And someone with a poor head can give birth to a genious. The "poor" Koach is only faulty on the outer levels. In the etzem Hanefesh, all Kochos are perfect - (and children come from a Hamshachas HaEtzem)
We have a certain Koach called Koach Hamaschil. This gives us the power to think, produce ideas, etc. Ideas flow from hear naturally.
In Chassidus, there is a principle that any Hamshacha that comes from a "metzious" is going to be limited in nature. For obviously a Hamshacha can be not greater than its source.
The Koach Hamashcil is a certain "Metzious." The good news is that since its a "Metzious" it can give a Hamshacah easily and smoothly. The bad news is it being a "Metzious" means that it is
limited. It has a certain form and thinks in a certain way. Some are faster, some slower...some creative and some systematic. But the point is, you are stuck being what you are.
But then there is that place inside of us where Sechel exists on a much purer, deeper form. It has no form or nature. It can hardly be called "Sechel" for it is featureless. Rather, it is the source for any Sechel that will eventually stem from it.
The good news is that it is infinite and can produce infinite ideas in infinte ways. The bad news is that it doesnt exist as "Metzious" in which we can easily draw from. It is so hidden and so formless that is hard to tap into. This level can be called Mochin Stima (Or Chachma Sh'bekeser, Koach HaYulei L'Chachma, etc)
(Coals and flinstones are the examples the Maamrim use to describe a level with a Metzious versus one without a Metiozus. Fire actually exists within the coal while no fire "exists" within the flinstone)
So we do not get Sechel from this level in a natural, flowing way. Rather, it is the Yegia that unleashes it allowing us tap into it...
The famous story that describes this idea is the story of Yekusiel Lepler who had a very Mediocre mind and never really was able to understand deeper aspects of Chassidus. He toiled and toiled until he actually changed the very nature of his mind and became one of the greatest Masklim of Chassidus.
Interesting post
It kinda sad but looking back, some of the kids in my class who were the genious's but never worked hard didnt turn out that great in later years in yeshiva.
1-why must a hamshacha be lower than the metzius? just cuz it cannot be greater doesn't mean that it can't be equal, no?
2-toras hashem is same up there and down here-like water that didn't change (vs a ray of light which isn't like its source, the actual light)..so how does that fit in?
3-e/o has the same mochin stimah?
Sabra,
#1 - Thats what I meant when I said-"can't be greater" - meaning that every idea/Svara you ever come up with will be limited to that mold/style of your Koach Hamaschil. But equal to? Why not?
2) We have to diffrenciate between actual Torah of Hashem and the way we learn Torah. The actual Torah of Hashem is the same Kedusha in higher and lower Olamos...but the way we learn that Torah and have it affect us depends on what part of our Sechel we use and how much we work... And in our body, like pretty much every other other Hamshacha, the more external the Koach, the weaker its power
3) Good question? I always wondered that myself... I dont really know how its works.
But let's assume once we get down to a deep level of any Koach, it functions at 100%. But is infinite ability for one person the same as for someone else? Is every Etzem the same? How about a special Neshama, Rebbe, etc? Of course, it is differant... (all of this just my guessing)
B.T.W - Mochin Stema is general term for "hidden Sechel" but within "hidden" itself there are differant levels...So whenever the term is used important to see what exact level is being discussed
2-well sechel is a pretty internal koach, wouldn't you say?
and i dont remember now why i thought of that but there was something you wrote that frustrated me cuz i felt like it contradicted that. but who knows...
3-well where does our etzem sechel-the mochin stimah-come from?
and if its so pure, so limitless, so grand-well how come we can't rely on that part of us for say, emunah or something. why can we not trust this part of our sechel completely? (in other words, we know that sechel is not enough to get us thru life, for it can always change, it is limited etc...but if we have this m.s. so what's the problem?)
re the ps-whats the innermost, most deepest level called? the etzem of sechel? and im assuming here that we are referrin to only the actual core, the most hidden level...
also, how come i never heard of 'Koach HaYulei L'Chachma'?
(when ye get frustrated/irritated, lemme know)
Not frustrated or irritated.
Just dont have time.
Hey, sounds similar to my blog. I'll stick a link someday, when I get around to messing with the template. In the meantime, stick around; you write well (didn't find so many grammatical errors...) and it's interesting.
Thanks...
Yep - it is somewhat similar . When I get around to adding links to mind, I'll add your as well
Hmmm, does that make me a microwave? I thought microwaves give off negative radiation...
i dont get you. u dont have time for what? to teach other ppl chassidus? only to post ur posts?
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