Q:
גדול שמושה של תורה יותר מלמודה – Serving your rebbe is bigger than learning Torah (Brachos 7b). So my question is, is serving your rebbe really more important than all the learning from your rebbe, all the information in halachos and other things that a rebbe can teach?
A:
Now pay attention. It’s very important to learn, no question about it. Learning is one of the major obligations of a Jew. But even more important is to practice, to make it a kinyan that it should be part of your nature.
Now suppose your rebbe is teaching you something; it’s all theory — whether he’s teaching you dinei nezikin, property laws, or the dinim of korbanos in the Beis Hamikdosh. Whatever he’s teaching you, it’s all theory. But suppose you are serving your rebbe, let’s say, at the table. That’s how talmidim used to do. As you serve him, you notice how he makes a bracha; you notice how he eats, you notice how he talks. So being in contact with him, you’re learning in practice how to behave al pi haTorah.
Of course it’s talking about a proper rebbe. If the rebbe himself didn’t serve his rebbe, he also doesn’t know how to behave. But if you’re serving the proper rebbe, then you’re learning by observation which is even more important than learning from seforim. A living sefer is much more effective. We have no idea how much you can learn from a living model that is built according to the principles of the Torah.
פה אלישע בן שפט אשר שפך מים על ידי אליהו – They introduced the navi by saying, “Here is Elisha who poured water on the hands of Eliyahu” (Melachim II 3:11). Now, he learned from Eliyahu a great deal – he was his rebbe, after all – but that’s not mentioned. By the pouring of water on his hands, helping in other ways, he saw the devotion in avodas Hashem of Eliyahu HaNavi and it made a bigger effect.
Of course he did both things; he learned from him too. If a person just wants to serve his rebbe and not learn Torah, so he’s like a person who wants to put on tefillin and not say kriyas shema. He must do everything. But when you’re learning Torah and you’re seeing Torah in action from your rebbe, the seeing part is more important than the learning part.
Now it doesn’t mean that you should stop learning chas v’shalom. You don’t stop saying kriyas shema because you put on tefillin. But the seeing your rebbe in action — you have to find that kind of a rebbe and you’ll serve him, and you’ll be close to him, then you’re going to gain so much that’s going to be inscribed on the tablet of your heart, rather than theories that you keep in your brain alone.
June 1989
