Q:
Is it proper for a yeshiva man to play ball bein hazmanin?
A:
When we come to the subject what to do bein hazmanim, first and foremost is for him to consolidate all that he learned during the zman. Otherwise, it’s going to evaporate. The truth is that it goes lost and that’s a great pity. These weeks that he has leisure, he should sit down and review everything that he learned, even if it’s b’shitchiyus, even if it’s only superficially. He should go through the Gemara and know the Gemara well, even though he doesn’t remember the shiurim. Bein hazmanim is a glorious opportunity. Otherwise, next time you’ll learn the same mesichta, it’ll be almost like a new mesichta.
Now exercise is very good. What kind of exercise, I’m not going to tell you. Everybody, especially young people, when they have some exercise, it’s worthwhile. But don’t make the error of letting the time go away on bitul zman. Bein hazmanim is primarily a time for chazara. If you’ll utilize that, you’ll never be sorry. You’ll look back on your life and see that what you learned, you consolidated and it remains forever. Otherwise, it’s a tragedy to work so hard on your learning and it all evaporates; nothing remains.
By the way, when you write a question and send it up, you have to write clearly; it’s hard to read some of these questions. You should work on having a good handwriting – everybody should learn how to write English properly. You have to be an expert to decipher some of these questions.
TAPE # E-55 (April 1996)
