A Vacation From Torah?
Natan's post-cholent belch unwittingly provides a window into the secularist attitude towards Torah and Mitzvos
Update: See next post as well, for a further response more to the point.
In many previous posts, Natan Slifkin has expressed his opinion that Torah and Mitzvos don't protect, in direct opposition to what the Torah and Chazal assert unequivocally in dozens of places. His airtight logic is as follows: Sometimes shuls get attacked. Therefore, Torah doesn't protect. QED. That's the extent of his argument. When his incredible ignorance of Chazal was pointed out, Natan responded that he simply doesn't care about what those primitive, uneducated folks thought. After all, they believed in magic and demons and that the kidneys have wisdom, so how important is their opinion anyways?
We have already demolished his infantile arguments here:
Yesterday, his belly filled with the Shabbos cholent, Natan dreamt up a brilliant new line of attack during his five-hour nap. It goes like this (yeshivish sing-song): If Chazal (and Tanach) were right that Torah really protects, how come yeshivos go on Bein Hazmanim? After all, the army never goes on vacation? Clearly Torah doesn't protect, and Chazal were again wrong. QED.
When I saw this, I laughed out loud. This man never fails to surprise me with his cluelessness! He should have asked, if chareidim think Torah learning is important, how come yeshivos go on Bein Hazmanim? Clearly, chareidim don't believe Torah learning is important, QED.
Natan actually, truly thinks that during Bein Hazmanim, bochurim and yungeleit drop the Torah and become as secularist as he is! He actually, truly thinks that they stop learning, davening, doing Mitzvos, and start doing znus, promoting kefirah and LGBTQ! Of course, this is the furthest from reality that one can get. Go into any Bais Medrash during Bein Hazmanim and you will see plenty of people learning, albeit less people and not the yeshiva hours.
So what causes this mindset? Why does Natan think that Chareidim go on vacation from Torah and Mitzvos? The answer is obvious, and his entire argument says a lot more about HIS approach towards Torah and Mitzvos than it does about chareidim. Natan's attitude, as expressed clearly in hundreds of his writings, is that Torah is simply one of the many branches of academic knowledge, along with science, history, literature, mathematics, etc. That's why he believes there is no such thing as "knowing how to learn”, only analyzing texts. Therefore, when the chareidi university (=yeshiva) goes on break between semesters, he imagines Torah learning completely comes to a close. Similarly with Mitzvos, he believes they are simply cultural activities that one can choose to perform or not (with some possible fringe benefits of generic religious rituals as expressed by Jonathan Haidt) and when the chareidi cultural centers (=yeshivos) go on break, there is no more mitzvah observance. His entire argument boils down to a projection of his own (the liberal Modern Orthodox) approach towards the Torah, and has nothing to do with chareidim.
Of course, it comes as no surprise to us that this is the typical secularist "Jewish" attitude. And it is even less surprising that this is Natan's attitude, as he bellows loudly and clearly in almost every post. Vacation from the Torah? Like, his entire life is one big vacation from the Torah. What is so amazing is that Natan believes this is the chareidi perspective as well!
I mean in no way to be offensive as I ask these questions. I am merely curious how exactly Limmud HaTorah works vis-a-vis protection. Can someone answer these questions:
1. How many talmidim and avreichem need to be learning at any one time in order for the protection to work? In 1948 - Ben Gurion allowed 400 pturim amounting to roughly ~0.5% of the population. Now there are at least ~150-180K Haredi avreichim and talmidim learning full time (1.7-2%) - is the % increase important to the protection?
2. Do they have to be full time "learners"? The same way some yeshiva students will eventually go out to work (and stop learning full time), couldn't talmidim learn for 3 years and then go to the army while a new crop of younger talmidim will take their place?
3. With that in mind, do Dati Leumi hesder yeshivot students (who learn for 18 months, serve in the army - usually in combat units for 18 months and then learn for another 24 months) count? If no, why not? If yes, why can't haredi yeshiva students do the same?
4. If you have enough learning going on, is there any need for an army? If no, how do we explain to the families of the roughly 20K soldiers who have fallen over the years that there was really no need for them to have been fighting in the first place?
5. Assuming that an army is always needed (to do the physical fighting while the learners learn), how can a person simply decide that he wants to be a learner (where the most danger will be the occasional papercut or eye strain headache) leaving others to be in mortal danger? Shouldn't there be a system (like in the army) where there are gibushim to determine who gets to do what? The top learners (from across the different Israeli communities) can qualify to learn.
Again, I mean no offense as I ask these questions - just trying to understand the different perspectives.
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So if the amount of Torah learning that goes on during Bein Hazmanim is sufficient for protection, why do we need full time Kollel throughout the year? Certainly you agree that the learning during Bein Hazmanim is a fraction of what it normally is?