Don't be so quick to judge

A man shared this with me:

I used to go once a year to baseball games. I had several reasons for sitting in the upper deck of baseball games that I would attend once a year in New York. Firstly, it put some distance between me and the gentiles who attended games. Often they drank or sat with their shirts off. They cursed. In the upper deck I could sit 100 feet away and be spared most of that. I worked this out with a rabbi, that this was a middle ground between never attending, which was a bit problematic since I grew up on baseball, and mingling more than was necessary. Secondly, I enjoyed the view of the grass. It felt like sitting in the mountains, which I never had occasion to do in the city. Thirdly, there's a breeze up there, and I usually attended in July when it's hot and humid in New York. Fourthly, I could watch the whole field and observe the full dimension of the game. Lastly, you don't have to worry about batted balls up there. People do get hit by balls. A Jewish women was killed by a ball in Los Angeles a few years back and a little girl suffered permanent brain damage at a different game recently. I study Torah for more than half the game, and in the upper deck I'm not distracted by concern of batted balls. This last reason wasn't the main reason. It was one of the reasons. Rav Avigdor Miller, who is one of my influences, emphasized that a person should exercise caution in matters of physical safety. He talked about this often. I was honoring his teaching. not only that but upper deck seats are $25 and mezzanine seats are $125. To me spending $125 for a baseball game is not justifiable. I could buy a sefer. I could give tzedukah. I could keep it in the bank. The players don't need to make $10,000,000 a year and if fans would refuse to pay ridiculously high prices, the inflated salaries would come down. All kinds of reasons go into the decision.

So I have my reasons. But when my son told a rabbi therapist that I sat in the upper deck to avoid batted balls the therapist criticized me to my son saying that my concern wasn't reasonable. 

A therapist shouldn't be passing judgement in general, but all the more so without knowing the facts. A rabbi shouldn't be criticizing a father. So what is this man? He is neither. And so it goes with nearly all rabbi-therapists, as most are just in it for the money and like most yeshiva guys can't seem to shut their mouths. 

woman killed at Dodgers game

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"Richie Ashburn hit a foul ball that struck a fan, Alice Roth, squarely in the face, breaking her nose. The game was then paused as medics came in to tend to Mrs. Roth. As they were carrying her away on a stretcher, play was resumed and Ashburn fouled off the first pitch thrown to him. This foul subsequently struck Mrs. Roth as she was being carried off by the medics. Roth was the wife of the sports editor for "The Philadelphia Bulletin", who was there with her two grandsons. The second foul ball broke a bone in her knee. There was blood everywhere."

Richie Ashburn later said about the event:

"I didn’t mean to do it. When I saw what happened, I felt terrible."

The Phillies showered Alice Roth and her grandsons with gifts.

They gave her grandson's, Preston and Tom a baseball signed by all of the players on the team, along with free tickets to future games.

In addition, the team gave the young boys a tour of their clubhouse and spent the afternoon talking baseball with them. Preston and Tom visited Alice in the hospital after the Phillies gave them the “star treatment.” One of the boys innocently asked:"Grandma, do you think you could go to an Eagles game and get hit in the face with a football?"

Komodo dragons are just so ruthless

 https://x.com/i/status/2031992873361485938

Torah vs. Saving Lives

Megillah 16b

Rav Yosef said: Studying Torah is greater than saving lives, as initially, when listing the Jewish leaders who came to Eretz Yisrael, Mordecai was mentioned after four other people, but at the end he was listed after five. This is taken to indicate that his involvement in governmental affairs instead of in Torah study lowered his stature one notch. The Gemara proves this: At first it is written: “Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan” (Ezra 2:2); but in the end in a later list it is written: “Who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahmani, Mordecai, Bilshan” (Nehemiah 7:7).

Taz, Yoreh Deah 251:14 (6) On the Gemara in Megillah at the end of the first chapter "Greater is Talmud Torah than saving a life." Certainly, nothing stands before saving a life. It is saying there that the one who is studying Torah and is not presented with the call to save a life has greater merit than the one who is put in that situation. [David ha-Levi Segal (c. 1586 – 20 February 1667)] 

The Ben Ish Chai (Ben Yohoyada) says this refers to not actual saving of life but to working for the potential of saving lives. This is after the Purim story where Mordechai worked in government affairs. [Yosef Hayim (1 September 1835 – 30 August 1909)]

גָּדוֹל תַּלְמוּד תּוֹרָה יוֹתֵר מֵהַצָּלַת נְפָשׁוֹת. הקשה הרי"ף למה לא דייק זה מדכתיב (אסתר י, ג) 'לְרֹב אֶחָיו' ולא כתיב 'לְכָל אֶחָיו' יעוין שם, ותירוצו דחוק מאד.

ונראה לי בס"ד דמעיקרא קושיא ליתא דמשם איכא למילף להיפך, יען דקאמר המיעוט הוא דפרשו אבל הרוב לא סבירא ליה הכי וילפינן מסברת הרבים ואיך ילפינן מדעת המיעוט להכי מייתי מקראי דנכתבים ברוח הקודש ודייקינן מנייהו שפיר דהא רוח הקודש הסכימה גם כן כסברת המיעוט. ועוד נראה לי דמכאן איכא הוכחה טפי דאף על גב דעלה לארץ ישראל ועזב השררה, עם כל זה מנאו אחר חמשה.

ודע דהא דקאמר יותר מהצלת נפשות לאו הצלת נפשות בודאי ממש דהא ודאי אין דבר עומד בפני פקוח נפש, אך הכונה על ספק הצלת נפשות דהא 

"And know when it says that it (Talmud Torah) is greater than the saving of lives, it is not referring to the definite saving of lives. Behold, nothing stands before with the saving of life. It is established on the doubtful saving of life. The righteous Mordechai, may he rest in peace, seized the kingdom after Israel had already been saved and the miracle had been performed, and only said that perhaps the matter of saving souls would come to him from here on out."

Seems to me that the term greater is vague here. It could mean only that we must always put the Talmid Chocham first because through the Torah we learn what to do. It does not necessarily mean that Mordechai's reward is less. 

You see also here the difference between the Litvack and the Sephardi. The Litvack, and the Taz was a kind of early Litvack, sees in this that study is the greater and provides the most merit. His reading doesn't fit the text as well as that of the Sephardi who takes from the Gemara it's more fitting meaning. The Litvish obsession with study and reward is visible here. And it's how this Gemara was always presented to me, but I see now that the presentation is very Litvish and not necessarily what the Gemara is saying. 

Volhynia or Volynia (/voʊˈlɪniə/ voh-LIN-ee-ə; see #Names and etymology) is a historic region in Central and Eastern Europe, between southeastern Poland, southwestern Belarus, and northwestern Ukraine. The borders of the region are not clearly defined, but in Ukraine it is roughly equivalent to Volyn Oblast, Rivne Oblast, and the northern part of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast and Ternopil Oblast. The territory that still carries the name is Volyn Oblast.

Yeshivitis

Chassidim are affected by neo-Litvishism. Witness Rabbi E. Biderman:

It states (Mishlei 8:11), כי טובה חכמה מפנינים וכל For wisdom is better than" ,חפצים לא ישוו ב ה pearls; all desirable things cannot compare to it." The Gemara (Moed Katan 8:) adds, אפילו חפצי Even mitzvos don't compare" ,שמים לא ישוו ב ה to Torah." Because the greatest mitzvah a person can perform is to study Torah.

What does the Gemara  actually say: (page 9 by the way, not 8)

The two scholars, Rabbi Yonatan ben Asmai and Rabbi Yehuda, son of converts, once again sat and raised the following dilemma: In one place it is written in praise of the Torah: “She is more precious than rubies; and all of your desires are not to be compared to her” (Proverbs 3:15). One can infer from here that all human desires cannot be compared to the Torah, but the desires of Heaven, i.e., mitzvot, can indeed be compared to her. And elsewhere it is written: “For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it” (Proverbs 8:11), which indicates that even mitzvot cannot be compared to the Torah.

They resolved this contradiction by stating that here, in the second verse, it is discussing a mitzva that can be done by others. In that case, even mitzvot cannot be compared to the Torah, and accordingly, one who is engaged in Torah study should not interrupt his studies in order to perform another mitzva. However, there, in the first verse, it is discussing a mitzva that cannot be done by others. In that case Torah study is not more important than the mitzva, and one should interrupt his studies in order to perform the mitzva.

This is similar to the debate in Kiddushin on Torah vs mitzvos where Torah is deemed to take precedence because it leads to doing. 

Moed Katan can be read to say study before doing mitzvos others can do because it leads to more mitzvos which is God's desire. He only shows you the second verse not the first which presents a contradiction. \

And guess what, he studied at Ponevitch

Does it have to be every time?

 

Melcher was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, to Jewish parents Minnie (née Gabriner) and Alter Melcher.[4]

Let's be normal and enjoy

So why not be a Litvack then?

So if what prevails today is not Litvishism but rather Yeshivism, if true Litvacks honor all the Gemara, including teach your son a trade, 18 to the chupah,  study what the heart desires, find a shiduch for an orphan, etc, then why not be a Litvack? If true Litvacks are not poisonous, why not be one?

It's a matter of style. Litvacks even traditionally are more focused on nigleh and analytics, less community oriented than Chassidim, less interested in the mystical and the tzadik. You can still be a good eved Hashem that way, and if it's your derech, then do it. But if you want more community and mysticism and connection with the tzadik, then Chassidus would be better. If you want more connection with humanity, if you find Hashem in nature and science, then you might be more of a Hirschian. Those are all valid derachim. 

Yeshivism, in my opinion, you can do it if you want, but it's not Litvishism, even though the Yeshivists claim to be the heirs of Litvishism. They are imposters in that regard. They are doing something else. And maybe it works for many people. That's not for me to judge. But call it what it is. And don't insist that it's the true derech because it's the least true derech.