Working Stiffs - Why we cannot be Litvaks without Blowing our Brains Out

A conversation concerning working Jews and the Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh:

"And perhaps herein lies the big difference between Chassidus and non-Chassidus. The Chassidic movement enabled people to dedicate their lives to serving HaShem with the tools they had at their disposal. A Gerrer Chassid who was working long hours in order to support his family, could nevertheless experience closeness with HaShem by fulfilling the mitzvos with intense kavannah. Those long hours of work themselves could be turned into mitzvos "simply" by intending to fulfill HaShem's will through them, instead of feeling guilty his whole life that he was not learning during most of his day."

Akiva Ben Canaan said...
On this issue, of different approaches to work:

I went to hear Rav Itamar Shwartz, author of the sefer Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh, speak yesterday. Essentially, he said that we should all have the desire to be learning Torah 24/7; while G-d understands that we need to work, He demands that our hearts be filled with a desire to study Torah all day. But Rav Shwartz also made clear that this desire is really only step 1; ideally, we should fulfill this desire in practice - ideally, we would all be learning 24/7 in actuality as well.So I asked him - doesn't that mean that we working Jews, people who sit in an office all day long, lead bedieved lives? Should we all go through life feeling like second class, bedieved Jews? How can one have this approach and not be depressed?

Basically, he responded that we should feel upset - the angst we feel about not learning all day, which is part of the punishment of "b'zaiat apecha tochal lechem", should push us to desire to learn more than we already do. The unhappiness we feel about workin will create a greater desire to learn Torah.I found this a very difficult answer to swallow, and to live by - and certainly NOT a chassidic approach. I thought the Bilvavi sefer was pretty chassidic in thought, with its central focus on deveikus. But his talk yesterday appeared quite Rav Chaim Volozhiner to me.

"instead of feeling guilty his whole life that he was not learning during most of his day."This seems to be what Rav Shwartz is advocating. Did I misunderstand?

DixieYid said...
Akiva,

You were at Englewood or Boro Park? (Incidently, those should be online at dixieyid very soon.) There is an aspect of this idea in Chassidus as well. The ga'aguim for more kedusha than one has is seen as very precious to Hashem. And to the extent that those ga'aguim motivate a person to do more than he currently is, they have a good practical effect as well.But this perspective should be balanced with another idea that I doubt Rav Shwartz would dispute. If it indeed is Ratzon Hashem that I be working, then my situation is lechatchila from Hashem's perspective (though from my perspective, I may want and daven for more access to kedusha). Having bitachon in Hashem's decision in this regard is also part of one's avodah.-Dixie Yid

Akiva Ben Canaan said...

Having read through the first volume of Bilvavi Mishkan Evneh, which does not focus all that much on studying Torah, I was surprised by the overall message of the shiur.

In the sefer (volume 1), Rav Shwartz clearly statesthat the point of our lives is achieving closeness to G-d - in all that we do, be it buying a table or any other mundane activity. Performance of the mitzvos, even Talmud Torah, are a means of achieving this closeness, not the goal in and of themselves.

In the shiur, however, Rav Shwartz never once mention Deveikus. Rather, he explained that both before birth and after death, one's soul spends all of its time studying Torah. COnsequently, our job in this world is to increase our desire to learn, as well as increase our actual learning - so that when we reach the next world, learning all day will be a joy, not a burden.I found the completely different emphasis (as I understood it) to be somewhat jarring. Over the long term, over decades of working as a lawyer, is it really possible to consistenly be inspired by Rav Shwartz's approach - that I should feel upset over the fact that I am not learning more? Is "negative inspiration" feasible and/or healthy for most Jews?

DixieYid said...
Akiva,Though he may not have said it in that shiur, it's no less true because of that. I think that on this trip, a lot of his emphasis was on adapting our lifestyle greatly so that we shouldn't have to be in a position of living a lifetime of regret about not learning enough.

Of course the Deveikus is still the point, but I think he was going back to something more basic than that, kind of as a way of focusing on things which enable that Deveikus. Because if we don't do enough of the things which enable deveikus, we won't have the deveikus either.

My approach would be this. I heard what he said. Now let me ask myself if I can change or make a relistic plan to put into action to change my lifestyle and work part-time and live more simply or whatever, in order to have more time for focusing on learning, Hisbonenus, etc. If I can change my lifestyle, then let me put that plan into action (whether it's a one year plan or a five year plan or whatever).

And if I can't do it, (truly), then this is the Ratzon Hashem and it would be depressing to constantly focus on my "bidieved" lifestyle. Rather I can instead focus on using the methods in hisbonenus throughout the day and for an hour a day to focus myself on bringing Hashem into all of those things, as you were saying.