שאין העולם מתקיים, אלא בהבל פיהם של תינוקות של בית רבן. The world is only sustained because of the breath of children in the house of study

משוך חסדך, ליודעיך; וצדקתך, לישרי לב

In Matt's comment on the last post he quoted the following Midrash from Kallah Rabbasi :

Every day a malach goes out before the Kadosh Baruch Hu to destroy the world, but once the Kadosh Baruch Hu gazes upon the tinokos shel beis rabban and the talmidei chachamim, immediately His anger turns to mercy.



Matt also pointed to the gemara in Shabbos 119b which says: "The world is only sustained by the breath of the tinokos shel beis rabban."

What does these two Midrashim mean? What is the benefit of the Tinokos shel Beis Rabban that we can say that the world is saved because of them?

This idea is brought down by the Rambam in the second chapter of the laws of Talmud Torah ( first halacha):

א מושיבין מלמדי תינוקות בכל מדינה ומדינה, ובכל פלך ופלך. וכל עיר שאין בה תינוקות של בית רבן--מחרימין את אנשי העיר, עד שמושיבין מלמד תינוקות; ואם לא הושיבו, מחריבין את העיר: שאין העולם מתקיים, אלא בהבל פיהם של תינוקות של בית רבן.
" You establish childhood educators in each and every province and each and every town. Any city that does not have an educator for its children- the men of the city are placed in excommunication until they sit an educator for the children. If they do not seat an educator, you destroy the city, because the world is only sustained through the breath of the mouths of the children in the study house"

Again, we see that the " world is only sustained through the breath of the children in the house of study". The Rambam is quite clear that every city must have an educator for its children or risk excommunication or loss of the city. What is the importance of this?

I find it interesting that the midrash states that the Kadosh Baruch Hu gazes at the children and the Talmidei Chachamim and his " anger" is assuaged. In the other two formulations I have presented only the children are emphasized. I think this is a hint.

The world is only sustained through the breath of the children in the study house. I believe that this is refering to the Mesorah of yedias Hashem. In other words the world is only sustained if there is a system of training humanity to be knowers of G'. Humanity as a species has a goal of recognizing and " knowing" G' , Am Israel is tasked with being humanities teachers. If Am Israel does not create and maintain a system of education in this concept then Humanity will not live in line with its purpose. As such the world will not be sustainable since it's purpose is no longer fulfilled ( that is, it will fall within another realm of law since it has failed to foster Yedia { " Hashem's Anger"}). This is why the Rambam includes the law that a city that does not seat an educator is excommunicated and then risks destruction. It has failed to perform its most important goal as a city which is to be a tool of perpetuating Yedias Hashem and when it has relinquished this priority it has relinquished its hold on existance.

Why then is there a slight difference between the aggadita in Shabbos ( as quoted also by the Rambam) which states that only the breath of the children sustains the world, and the midrash in Kallah Rabasi which mentions the image of Tinnokos and Talmidei Chachamim "assuaging" the Kadosh Baruch Hu? These two phrases are in reality two expressions of one idea. Talmidei Chachamim are the active and current teachers of humanity, they are the ones with the greatest understanding and those who are most capable of spreading Yedia. Children in the house of study are not yet active tools of yedia, rather they are the material from which Yodei Hashem are formed. In other words the "sight" of Talmidei chachamim and Tinokos is really the expression that Humanity as a SPECIES is engaged in the recognition of G' and not merely as a generational occupation. The inclusion of both Talmidei Chachamim and Tinokos, demonstrates that humanity is engaged perpetually in the process of Yediah. Both generations point to our essential purpose. The world is only sustained through the Human species' recognition of Yedias Hashem, and this can only be accomplished through being maishiv melamdei Tinokos and fostering the " Hevel Pihem shel Tinokos shel Beis Rabban"

I wanted to take this opportunity with this idea on my lips, to be personally Meshabeach the Kadosh Baruch Hu for a great blessing he has bestowed on me,the birth of my niece,Meora Lila, the first of her generation. May it be his will that she grow into a woman of valor , one with yedias Hashem, a true expression of the verse in Micah 6
"ח הִגִּיד לְךָ אָדָם, מַה-טּוֹב; וּמָה-יְהוָה דּוֹרֵשׁ מִמְּךָ, כִּי אִם-עֲשׂוֹת מִשְׁפָּט וְאַהֲבַת חֶסֶד, וְהַצְנֵעַ לֶכֶת, עִם-אֱלֹ-ֶךָ.
It hath been told thee, O man, what is good, and what the LORD doth require of thee: only to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk modestly with thy G.

For my Friend and my Rebbi,in thanks.

I am reminded of a famous expression which is found throughout the world. In fact I can hear it ringing through my ears in the soft German of my family. I wont mention it explicitly because it is often formulated in a heretical manner. The gist of the expression is that Man plans his life and then circumstances intervene and in the end the man has ended up in a place and state that he had not planned nor had he desired at the beginning. Often times the man experiences great grief at the loss of his "plan" and the experience of his new reality.When the man is thrust into a new reality he is often so fixated on his "plan" , his conception of "happiness" and "good" that he cannot escape his own delusions. He continues to dwell as if he was in the same state as the ante-circumstance man was. In short he had become so infatuated with his prior life, so comfortable, so enamored with the object of his desires and the subject of his thoughts that he can not redeem himself. When he reaches this point, bobbing up and down in the tide he does not even know to tread water. The fortunate ones are those who have that cliched life vest tossed to them.

It is in this light , with this image in my mind that I am writing.

Recently, I experienced first hand the emotional glass breaking that comes with a destruction , an annihilation of "the plan". I would not be eating, I would not be functioning were it not for a salvation that was done for me . They spent their time and their energies , emotionally and otherwise when they were not at a loss for important things to do seperate from me.They demonstrated that my "plan" and my Life were not equivalent. They pointed me on the way to the "Happy Life", they saved me and I love them .



I owe them more than I can repay, and as such my only tribute - some thoughts on the nature of happiness which I have collected from my friends, my Rebbi and Seneca, which are in agreement with one another .



"To live happily, my brother Gallio,is the desire of all men, but their minds are blinded to a clear vision of just what it is that makes life happy; and so far from its being easy to attain the happy life, the more eagerly a man strives to reach it, the farther he recedes from it if he has made a mistake in the road for when it leads in the opposite direction, his very speed will increase the distance that separates him"

When man is in the midst of his "plan", his desires, his lusts, he cannot conceive of the possibility that what he imagines to be his life, what he wants , what he strives for, is not what is good, is not what will make him Happy.Even as the plan crumbles around him, he deludes himself to think that the plan is sound. He is so steeped in the fantasy that he drives himself ever further down the opposite path.The faculty of mind is left at the dock, and he refuses to see that the plan has failed.


"Let us, therefore, decide both upon the goal and upon the way, and not fail to find some experienced guide who has explored the region towards which we are advancing; for the conditions of this journey are different from those of most travel"

This is the solution to the man slipping beneath the waves of his own self denial and fantasy. The Rabbis have said it thus, " Yelech etzel Chacham" , "Go to a sage and he will instruct you".Most people under normal circumstances are untrained and unable to sort through their own turmoil and end in Happiness. The chacham is the therapist, the role model and the guide. Seneca endorses " Aseh Lecha Rav". He cautions , as does the Mesorah, not to blindly follow anyone. The mind is the crucible.Sometimes however, the mind is absent.


"You understand, even if I do not say more, that, when once we have driven away all that excites or affrights us, there ensues unbroken tranquillity and enduring freedom; for when pleasures and fears have been banished, then, in place of all that is trivial and fragile and harmful just because of the evil it works, there comes upon us first a boundless joy that is firm and unalterable, then peace and harmony of the soul and true greatness coupled with kindliness; for all ferocity is born from weakness"
This paragraph resonates with me. I can recall time after time after time being instructed in the truth of this statement. At a certain point man holds tight to his pain , his fragility because that very thing is a remnant of the lost desires, the lost "life" that you had planned.
" But no man can be happy unless he is sane, and no man can be sane who searches for what will injure him in place of what is best."
This is the sickness of the man who cannot allow himself happiness. He thinks bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. He attempts to eat things which are not food. He seeks out and cleaves to the things that are his undoing.
"the happy man is he who allows reason to fix the value of every condition of existence"
This is the definition. This points to what the mesorah has declared regarding Man and his happiness. Happiness , Good for man, demands his mind. "And therefore the ancients have enjoined us to follow, not the most pleasant, but the best life, in order that pleasure should be, not the, leader, but the companion of a right and proper desire. For we must use Nature as our guide; she it is that Reason heeds, it is of her that it takes counsel. Therefore to live happily is the same thing as to liveaccording to Nature." To live happily, is to live the life of mind, for the nature of man is a rational animal.

Bechiraville U.S.A.

Last night as I drove home from work, tired from a long day, happy for a long weekend, I started to reflect on this land that has given me sojourn. America, is a wonderful land. I do not think that anyone would argue that the founding fathers, framers or whatever you would prefer to call them, were some of the greatest minds the secular world has produced in the last 1000 years. (It is interesting to note, that many of the chachmei harevolution expressed views on religion and the Creator which are at the very least thoughtful) The writings of the revolutionaries are soaked through with the chachmah of political theory and natural philosophy.The founders believed as they so often stated that Man derives his freedom from the creator.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"( Unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America). The founders stated their purpose in the preamble to the constitution,
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America"
Read these words and absorb the chachma that pours off the pages. These few lines give testimony to the good of America. As the Rambam famously said,"Just as plants bear testimony to the existence of real roots, and waters are evidence for the excellence of springs, so has a firm shoot developed from the roots of truth and righteousness, and a huge river has gushed forth from the spring of mercy( letter to Rav Ya'akob Al Fayumi, the Epistle to Yemen). These words are but a part of the great springs from which this nation flows.The words, justice, tranquility, and blessings reflect the mindset of the founders. They recognized that the world is governed by laws, laws established by the Creator and that Man must attempt to live within these laws. They understood that Man is imperfect and his rule is as a result corrupted. Their system was,( is), designed to minimize that corruption. I would not pretend that this system is better than that of Torah, but we must remember that the Malchus of the Torah and the Philosopher King of Plato ( not to say they are far off), are lichatchila situations. It would have been counterproductive for the founders to try and establish a Philosophical Monarchy and impossible for them to replacate the Malchus of Torah. As such, their system is, the best system that could be achieved.It spreads the power and authority amongst many, while maintaining the position of a national leader. ( This reminds me of the advise of Chazal to not walk alone at night because of the 'mazikin' , the spreading of power to many allows for mutual support and avoidance of mazikin.)There are those who criticize the system for this reason, and to them I repeat my statement. If we had a navi , or a real sanhedrin then I would agree, but that is a stupid mans way of thinking.

Another point that I was reflecting on as I drove was the nature of the Torah world in America. There are those who decry America as evil and elevate Poland, or Yemen, or the Maghreb or wherever their zaydees and papous came from as so much better for yehadus. In America we have seen a total abandonment of yehadus from thousands of Jews. We have also seen the Torah world re-establish itself after the second World War in America and become a center for chachma rivaling any of recent memory.So, in light of both of these facts, I wonder what is the proper view of this country and its society in regards to a Halachic person.
There is no doubt that there are destructive elements in society. We are overly consumed by frivolity, sex and a myriad other pursuits. It is true again, that thousands have left the Bris , tempted by these pursuits. This is a tragedy. However, if we consider the nature of man and his bechirah the greatness of America on a whole and specifically in terms of Torah comes to the fore. Man was created with free will. It is his responsibility to choose "THE GOOD" and "THE LIFE" and avoid and deny "THE DEATH AND THE BAD".No nation on earth allows for this quite as America does. The very idea of personal responsibility and liberty presuppose bechira chofshith. When we decry the loss of some to Torah, it is not Americas fault , it is our fault. If we do not want our people destroying themselves than we better make sure they understand the bechirah. This is the beauty of America. We have been given a foothold in a land that will allow us to quite literally make that free will decision. American liberty IS bechirah.

Behold I have set before you the Life and the good the Death and the bad - part two.

This is not really a part two so much as another observation that I would like to make about the mikrah in devarim . I think it is interesting to note the lashon of the verse, the pasuk does not say " behold I have set before you life and good death and bad" but rather it says " Behold I have set before you the life and the good , the death and the bad". Did you catch the difference? The verse describes these two choices as either THE life and THE good, or conversely THE death and The bad. The use of 'the' instead of just saying life and good, death and bad, seems to be a further pointer to the meaning of the verse. Rationality and intellectual living is THE Life that man was created for, it is THE GOOD. On the other hand the life of an animal is in reality THE Death of man and THE BAD, the worst possible engagement available to him.

I guess that was a simple point but perhaps it needed to be said again...

Behold I have set before you Life and the good and the Death and the bad and you shall choose life

"ראה נתתי לפניך היום, את החיים ואת הטוב, ואת המוות, ואת הרע" (דברים ל,טו
This mikrah often bothers me and this week it popped into my head again, what kind of a choice is that? . I have set before you life and good, death and bad, choose life?I have given you poison and I have given you sustenance pick whichever you prefer? It seems almost absurd that this mikrah is couched as a choice. What type of choice is it?
Bob, I have two things in my hand , one is a baseball bat with which I will beat you, the other is a pillow for you to rest on, now Bobbo, which one do you want? Curious, no?

Also this week I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine , ( you know who you are),the friend was lamenting her recent removal from an environment of Torah where she was surrounded by chachmah and Tov.She was literally pained by the sudden uprooting from her cozy chachma nest and the dumping into the world outside the Beit Midrash.Indeed I had recently experienced a similar pain, ( in my case it was pre-emptive), at my impending limit of Beit Midrash time. I think however, that these two feelings , the pain at removal from being one of the permanent "Yoshevei beisecha", to a mere student or a worker, can be assuaged with a proper understanding of the pasuk of Chayim and Maveth, tov and rah.

I think that we can find an answer to my uneasiness with the "choice" in the mikrah if we recall the words of a certain chacham, who has often been quoted by other chachamim anonymously , but I will reference him by saying " hear the truth from whoever speaks it". The quote is as follows ,"EVERY art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim." To my mind this quote provides a very good solution, every action of man points to what that man holds to be good, clearly that is why man would do anything. If you did not perceive some good in what you were doing then you would not do it. Now if we keep this in mind then the verse could be saying, " behold I have set before you real Life and objective good and certain death and objective bad which you view as good because you have a false concept of the good, re-evaluate your idea of the good and choose the objective good". In other words this verse is a command to use your mind to decipher what is and is not good .

Now, how does this apply to the situation of my friend?

We are given minds to percieve the wisdom of the creator. This is the ultimate goal of Man. In the words of the pasuk we are given minds to " choose the good", the good is yediath Hashem.When we are in an environment of a beit midrash, when we are literally those who the psalmist speaks of in Psalm 145 as being praiseworthy, we feel a sense of security. It is almost as if we are in an intellectual summer camp, we are engaged in ideas, activities ,on our own, but we are also closed off and sheltered within the stacks of books. Our outside experiences, as in summer camp, are controlled, highly limited.Our learning is regulated, there are shiurim that we have given to us, our schedules revolve around certain fixed points of involvement in chachamah .As such when we are in the Beit Midrash what cares do we have? What is tosafot talking about? How can the Rambam say one thing here and seemingly contradict himself two paragraphs later, ( Lo aleinu!), or even the concern of one who is uncomfortable with the harsh criticism of the Ra'avad. But we do not have open exposure to influences and attractions that openly challenge us on the very deoth that we spend our time with.So the pain comes when we are ripped from this security and thrown into this brave new world of work and battalah and bills to pay and kids to feed and responsibility. No one is there to tell us to learn, no one is standing over our shoulder if we are mevattel our time, no rebbi next to you in shiur to guide you everyday, no chavrutha at work to help you be perfected.
This pain is however, great. Think about it, the pain is the confrontation between the world of bechirah and your mind. It is the point at which you must decide, " Jake, are you gonna go off and lose your mind , or are you going to grab tight and be an Adam".( You dont have to decide using the name Jake, but I do...).This is the first real exposure to the world of maveth and rah and the potential for chayim and tov. In this world of malacha , or better yet just the world outside, we are immediately confronted with taavoth and other distractions that challenge our conception of tov. The pain is beneficial at this point because it is the screaming of the soul, the mind or whatever you want to call it, the yelping of a mind that was spoiled by all day involvement in chachamah and is now conflicted over the removal or limitation of it.It is the recognition of what you have up until now held to be the good. This pain is what will in the beginning stages push you to the bechirah of tov and of chayim and will steer you from the pitfalls of rah and maveth.





א רשות כל אדם נתונה לו: אם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך טובה ולהיות צדיק, הרשות בידו; ואם רצה להטות עצמו לדרך רעה
ולהיות רשע, הרשות בידו. הוא שכתוב בתורה "הן האדם היה כאחד ממנו, לדעת, טוב ורע" (בראשית ג,כב)--כלומר הן מין זה של אדם היה אחד בעולם, ואין לו מין שני דומה לו בזה העניין, שיהא הוא מעצמו בדעתו ובמחשבתו יודע הטוב והרע ועושה כל מה שהוא חפץ, ואין לו מי שיעכב על ידו מלעשות הטוב או הרע. וכיון שכן הוא, "פן ישלח ידו" (שם

ה [ג] ועיקר זה עיקר גדול הוא, והוא עמוד התורה והמצוה--שנאמר "ראה נתתי לפניך היום, את החיים ואת הטוב, ואת המוות, ואת הרע" (דברים ל,טו), וכתוב "ראה, אנוכי נותן לפניכם--היום: ברכה, וקללה" (דברים יא,כו): כלומר שהרשות בידכם; וכל שיחפוץ האדם לעשות ממעשה בני האדם--עושה, בין טובים בין רעים. ומפני זה העניין נאמר "מי ייתן והיה לבבם זה להם" (דברים ה,כה)--כלומר שאין הבורא כופה בני האדם ולא גוזר עליהן לעשות טובה או רעה, אלא ליבם מסור להם