I apologize for not posting a new blog sooner but with the holiday and some family issues, I was a bit overwhelmed...nevertheless I am back and had a few questions....
Before I start a few mazel tov's. My cousin has a daughter getting married in two weeks and she is moving to....you guessed it, Lakewood where her husband will be....you guessed it, learning in Kollel. But wait-there's more. Her brother just got engaged two days ago...he'll be moving to...drum roll please...Lakewood where he will be....learning in Kollel...anyone see a pattern? Ahh but in case you have not had enough, my brother's nephew from his wife's side also just got engaged...his is moving to....do I need to say??
What are we doing to our children??? Does this make any sense to you?? Someone please explain this utter stupidity to me and additionally, tell me how this lunacy is good for the Jewish people and how it is actually the way of the Torah??
A thought about learning all night on Shavuos....
Where did we get this and by we I mean the religious Jewish community? What source can we look to for this minhag? Rashi? Nope. Rambam? Nope. Abarbanel? Nope. Ramban? Nope. Now it seems to me that none of the above partook in this nobel excersize, or at the very least they didn't advocate it for the masses. Now please feel free to correct me on these aforementioned bastions of yeshivish thought, but I can't find one place in their writings where they even hint to staying up all night to learn on Shavuos. How did we get here?
It seems that the Mogen Avraham is really one of the first to mention this idea of staying up all night referring to a recent happening as if to say that around his time in the early 1600 or late 1500's, people started to stay up all night. I find it interesting to note that coffee was introduced to that region around the same time frame. Could it be without the introduction of caffeine back then, we would not have this minhag today? I seem to think so. Now for the Yeshiva guy this is an uncomfortable thought-do you mean to tell me that no one stayed up on Shavuos before then? Uhhhh...for the most part yes. Except of course if you read the Zohar who has a whole miggilah on how a few Kabbalists stayed up to prepare the bride-Klal Yisroel-for the groom-Hashem and Torah-and it explains there the very obscure and esoteric meanings behind this idea.
The yeshiva guy will point to the Chofetz Chaim who states the medrash and we stay up all night because we needed to be woken up...blah blah blah...I believe even the CC knew this was way off, but he did not want to mention Kabbalah b/c he knew how the misnagdim hated the chasidim so....and that tradition has been handed down to the yeshiva world who has an almost disdain for Kabbalists as if only the yeshiva world has true insight to Torah....I wonder if the yeshiva world knows how much Kabbalah they have in their lives...ana b'koach, lechu nerannina, Lecho dodi just to name a few....
The other question I wonder is do you think there is any chance that had she lived in today's world, Devorah would have been allowed to rise into a leader of Klal Yisroel? I say no shot..Can you imagine the self proclaimed moetzes gedolei ha'Torah differing to a woman? I am confident that the Rosh Ha'Yeshiva's would ban her speeches and attack her as a rodef and rebel rouser who was not a good example for our daughters and b'nos Torah...
Anyone doubt that?
What a shame that Torah Judaism has been squeezed into a very small narrow box and anyone who dares to question it's non halachic laws is attacked and abused in the name of Torah. What a shame...
6 comments:
First off, I don't particularly care about where the minhag to stay up all night came from. I do it because right now, at this point in my life, I'm physically capable of it and given the crown in my synagogue that comes to the all-nights, it's a lot of fun. The shul uses it as a chance to do some kiruv on the local teenagers while the adults use it to catch up on learning they may have fallen behind on. There's always good food too. In a few years when it becomes too hard, I'll stop and I won't feel like I'm sinning because I didn't do it.
I've also heard another reason for the minhag. Shavuos is special because it's the only one of the three big holidays that doesn't have a special ritual attached to it nowadays. No sukkah, no seder or matzah. So the all-night is a way of giving the holiday something special of its own. If it's taken at on that level, I can't see the problem with it.
Next, the reason for the trend to move to you-know-where to spend the day doing you-know-what is hardly surprising. Imagine you're an up and coming teenager. You've been raised in the yeshivish system so you have no knowledge or skills in math, history, science, etc. You find out that if you go to kollel you get to sit around, read books all day (when not conversing casually with friends) and you get paid to do it! Who wouldn't want this as a career choice? Especially when you've been told since birth that working for a living is treife?
As for your Devorah comment, spot on! However, you can't just fault the Chareidim on this one. If the current Jewish leadership we have now across the spectrum had been in charge at that time:
a) The Chareidim would have refused to fight (maybe that's why the tribe of Reuven didn't join in, see Devorah's criticism of them) but demanded a bigger yeshivah subsidy because it was their prayers that would make victory possible.
b) Olmert would invite the Egyptians and Assyrians in to police the border so that Sisera and Yavin's forces couldn't attack the tribes directly
c) Yossi Beilin and Shimon Peres would give impassioned speeches reminding everyone that the twelve tribes were an occupying force on Canaanite land and all those poor pagans were trying to do was recover what had illegaly been taken from them
Sigh.
what the heck is wrong with you? you claim to have a real jewish view, "only a jew" but you lack the appreciation for the thing that makes us jewish...you guessed it...TORAH you idiot. your questioning of the two things in your post shows a clear lack of regard for torah learning. the reason people learn all night is because we are showing our love for our life-source. and the reason people learn in kollel is because we have successfuly tought a generation to love torah as well. i am not yeshivish, i don't plan on spending any time in kollel, but a more asinine comment i have never heard. the reasin the jewish commuinity is in the sorry state it is in is because overly sinicle people like you can't understand why someone would want to spend their day learning. i am sure next you are going to question why we don't just do away with the yeshivah system entirely
Where do these people come from and how do they remember how to turn their computers on in the morning?
Rebbenachman, Onlyajew didn't question the importance of learning. He merely noted that a relatively recent minhag has been imbued with characteristics to make it seem like its been done since time immemorial. I don't think he has a problem with you staying up all Shavuos night, just with you saying you're doing it to follow in the footsteps of the Tannaim and Shmuel HaNavi who did it, when they didn't.
Secondly, if the yeshivish system produces people incapable of spelling simple English words like "cynical" or using proper English grammer, maybe it's time it had an overhaul. There was a time Jews took pride in being eloquently fluent not only in Hebrew and Yiddish/Ladino but also in the language of the land they lived in (usually they spoke it far better than the gentiles around them). Yeshivish English today makes hillbillies seem like Shakespeare at times.
As for people learning in Kollel because they love Torah, that's a huge slur against us regular shlubs who slave away at work just so we can listen to the shnorrers who come to our door at night tell us how we can share in their "higher level" by giving them some of our hard earned money. If we somehow manage to find time to learn regularly despite working and living up to our family responsibilities, that puts US on the higher level. Anyone can learn when they hide out from the real world. Try doing it when you don't.
Hey Super rock star, I guess that would put "Only a Jew" in that category of people who use improper grammar. See, "Can you imagine the self proclaimed moetzes gedolei ha'Torah differing to a woman?" Uh, that would be deferring...Why don't we just stick to substantive issues and forget the other stuff, shall we?
I think most Yeshiva guys know that the custom of staying up on Shavuos night wasn't widespread until R' Shlomo Alkabetz poularized the story that happened with him, the Bais Yosef and others (see SheLaH at the beginning of Meseches Shavuos).
just wanted you to know that you are speaking my thoughts when it coes to this misguided worship of full time learning. nobody is talking about what this does to families and what it does to women. i'll expand at a later time because i have to go to sleep in order to go to work tomorrow and take care of my family.
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