When did that happen, when it was pushed on all of klal Yisroel. Some years ago, I went to a local synagogue in America as they had there a kind of mini-yeshiva for baal habatim. I thought I would get involved in it. The rabbi - a Lakewood guy- pulled me into the office, gave me a Gemara exam (what else is new) and then preceded to pound me for an hour with a diatribe on the imperative of "deep" (he kept using that word) Torah learning, by which he meant Gemara lomdus on the yeshivishe mesectas using lots of mefarshim. Using that over-the-top, imperious, aggressive style which is characteristic of so many of these people, he just pounded me, mocking (don't they always mock something?) what he deemed those who learn superficially. I suppose he was referring to daf yomi. I was in such shock over his tirade that I really don't remember everything he said. But I do remember clearly hearing the name Aaron Kotler over and over.
Now, I have no idea if Rabbi Kotler advocated this approach for everyone or just the 50 guys that were in his yeshiva at the time. But this rabbi was bent on imposing it on everyone.
So here I am, an American baal habayis, and a BT at that. I had a terrible experience in yeshiva. He only knows the first part of that because he didn't get to know me at all before going on his diatribe. My mind went back to the time I checked out a EY based BT yeshiva as a possible alternative to the hellish place that I had foolishly allowed myself to be tricked into handing over my life. I came looking for the introduction to Torah observance that I wasn't getting. What did this rabbi do? He gave me a Gemara exam, on mesechta Succos. I remember the experience well. As I attempted to prepare for a half-hour, I kept thinking, why is he doing this? I'm a brand new BT. I'm trying to figure out if there's a God.
But to Manalim, Gemara lomdus is the deity. It's all they know and all they care about. I have heard more than once such guys saying "The Gemara is God." That exact phrase I have heard numerous times. And they push this on everyone. Despite their claims of being the real mesorah, they changed everything, changed the Yekkes, the Sefardim, and the Chassidim. They have everyone doing this Gemara lomdus all day long.
Want to know why? Because by itself it takes you away from God. It is cold and abstract and turns the mitzvos into an abstraction. Here's R' Menachem Genack's description of it.
The essence of the Brisker derech approach is to view Talmudic discussions and debates through the prism of logical constructs and categories rather than common sense concepts. For example, one of the compelling ideas of Rav Chaim, which was developed by the Rav, involves shtarot, halachic documents. According to Rav Chaim, the legal power of the shtar goes well beyond any common sense, practical notion of a shtar’s legal force. There is a halachic principle that if one possesses a shtar which attests that another person owes him money, the other person is precluded from denying the claim because of an umdena, a presumption, called shtarcha b’yadi mai ba’i, “What is your shtar doing in my hands?” In other words, there is a presumption that if the debtor had already paid the loan referred to in the shtar, then the creditor would no longer be in possession of the shtar evidencing the debt. But, contended Rav Chaim, if the existence of the shtar merely gives rise to a presumption, a mere common sense inference from the facts that leads to a reasonable legal conclusion, what creates the halachic obligation that the debtor swear that he does not owe the debt? Instead, Rav Chaim explained, the shtar must be considered to constitute actual testimony that the loan was not paid, even though the legal force of the shtar is based only on an umdena. The Rav used to say in Yiddish, “Biz Reb Chaim, shtarot geven a chaspa b’alma”—before Rav Chaim shtarot were mere paper. Similarly, until Rav Chaim came and explained Yoreh Deah, the Rav said, it was just about pots and pans. Halachah had been a practical world but Rav Chaim coverted it into a conceptual world.
The Brisker derech involves conceptual categories. Halachic acts, thoughts and objects are all conceptualized and placed in categories. Once placed in the proper categories, the halachic and conceptual characteristics of the phenomena become more clearly defined and logically comprehensible. The Brisker emphasis on categorization explains the well-known Brisker attachment to the Rambam. The Rambam took the entire corpus of halachah and categorized all its elements in a strictly rational, analytical order. This is the same conceptual groundwork on which the Brisker derech is based.
A defining characteristic of the Brisker derech is that in the course of analyzing a sugya, one constantly asks, “What category does this fit into?” The question that is repeatedly posed is “What?” not “Why?”
This could be interesting, if done in measure. But all day long and nothing but that?
Just ask Rav Chaim Brisker who invented it. He told Rav Weissmandl, when you go to America, don't take this with you. He said he invented it to combat the haskala, to give an alternative to university studies. It wasn't intended to replace traditional learning. The Hungarian way was to set up your own communities outside of the main cities. In Poland, Jews lived largely in big cities, which is why there's so much traifis and harshness in some of Polish Jewry. The Torah learning for the masses was basic peshot, Ein Yaakov aggadata, Shulchan Aruch, Zohar. That's also what they did in Breslov and what the Yeminities did. In the Chassidic world in general it was like that. Rebbe Nachman discouraged lomdus. He told one student who was heavy into it to stop. Why would he do that? I'm theorizing that it's because it takes you away from avodas Hashem if you are not careful with it. The Satmar Rebbe said this lomdus was going to destroy klal Yisroel. You had scholars in the Chassidic world, in Hungary, in Sefardic lands. For sure you had that. But the average person did better by learning the old fashioned way. The Manalim don't care about that. They only care about fame and fortune from being the biggest scholar at the most prestigious yeshiva. Hang around these guys. It's all they ever talk about. They don't care about the masses at all.
Now, Rabbi Soloveitchik loved Brisker Torah and argued how it's a religious experience. He makes a good case, but Rabbi Soloveitchik was a genius and he knew all sorts of philosophy. His commentary on Chumash is mesmerizing. His commentary on Kinos is incredible. Brisker Torah was only part of his Torah knowledge. So for him it was a religious experience. But that doesn't mean you should impose it on 16 year old boys whose fore-brains are still being developed.
The Maharal complained about pilpul. He said it was a shame the printers put Tosfos on the Gemara page. They should have put the Rosh, so people would be prompted to learn halacha.
The Chofetz Chaim in a letter said one should learn the RIF (which is halacha) and then learn the Talmud.
The Karliner Rebbe said you should learn at least one aggadata a day because it shows you Hashem.
Why is mesechta brochos the first in the Talmud? It teaches you to thank Hashem. I told a contemporary Rosh Yeshiva that I was learning brochos and he sort of smirked like isn't that cute, not a real mesechta.
The Vilna Gaon was opposed to starting yeshivas. After Chaim Volozhin came to him several times he reluctantly said OK. In those days, if you wanted to be a lamdan, you came and learned with a scholar. Torah wasn't institutionalized. In the times of the Temple, they'd sit on the floor, put books on cushions and hear aggadata and halacha from a tzadick. That's why there is so much halacha in the Midrash. The scholar had to be a tzadick, and you were getting exposure to the tzadick. Today, all that matters is genius. You can be nasty and be a "big rabbi". And some of them are exactly that.
The Manalim have damaged the world, the Jewish world and therefore the whole world. It started small. It's like Esav was an idealistic man but injected a poison that grew into cancer that became Amalek. Esav wasn't Amalek, but Amalek emerged from him. The first pilpulim were cute. It was a thing to do not a way of life. But it has became a black plague on Judaism.
There used to be an idea that a student had to be worthy to learn Torah. Today, having a high IQ is all that matters. And those people do well in the Gemara lomdus and become our leaders. I was told recently of a bachur who was told he could go to any yeshiva because he's good at Gemara. It's not about his middos or anything like that. It's all about hasmada.
