Deuteronomy 4:9<\/strong><\/a>). One could [have inferred that this is the case] even when his study proved [too] hard for him, therefore scripture says, \u201cthat they do not fade from your mind as long as you live\u201d (ibid.). Thus, he is not mortally guilty unless he deliberately removes them from his heart.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen you learn a piece of Torah, you are obligated to put forth your best effort to remember it, or you are violating a biblical prohibition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Truth be told, while many do not include this demanding prohibition is their count of the 613 mitzvot, the poskim do accept that a person must at least attempt to remember his learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Surprisingly there is some question as to how this applies in contemporary times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rav Chaim of Volozhin claims that this prohibition is no longer relevant. He explains that the mandate to remember one\u2019s learning served to protect our tradition. In a time when the Oral Law remained unwritten, human beings carried and passed the mesora from one generation to the next, and this mesora necessitated meticulous memorization to transmit each detail to the next generation. Once the Oral Law took its current form of Mishna, Talmud, and enough seforim to fill a library, memorize the information becomes unnecessary. The mesora rests safely on the shelves, readily accessible to the next generation. (Rav Chaim dissertation on the importance of Torah study in his Nefesh HaChaim leaves no doubt that his view on this prohibition did not detract from his understanding of the centrality of Torah study in our lives.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The type of transition Rav Chaim describes- from an era requiring a focus on memorization to one of retrieving information- is one that I have seen in my lifetime. Not too long ago we did not have Waze to provide directions; we actually had to know our way around. When my wife and I were engaged, we realized that we did not even know each other\u2019s phone numbers because we relied so heavily on our phones. I remember as a young boy memorizing multiplication tables that our math teacher constantly reminding the class that \u201cyou won\u2019t always have a calculator with you in life.\u201d None of us imagined that not only would we carry a calculator in our pocket, but that we did not need to study the information taught in any of our classes. Our handheld devices store more information than libraries of previous times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his Shulchan Aruch HaRav, the first Lubavitcher Rebbe disagrees with Rav Chaim\u2019s suggestion. The Torah is not just a book that is kept on the shelf to pass on to the next generation. The prohibition to forget one\u2019s learning remains in effect even in a world where the entire Torah can be stored on a computer chip. We may access the text from a different type of tablet, but the mandate to remember the Torah exists today just as when it was given at Har Sinai. The prohibition to forget one\u2019s learning is not for the Torah\u2019s sake, but for our sake. The Torah must become a part of each of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we think of Shavuot, of course, we think of Torah. We think of a book. Or a scroll. We think of a shiur or a Dvar Torah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But today we must not just focus on the physical item brought down from Har Sinai.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We no longer struggle to transmit that Torah, whose information could not be more accessible. We can (and should!) spend the rest of our lives listening to the shiurim on YUTorah and reading through the Artscroll Library, and we still only scratch the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But on Shavuot we do not simply celebrate the information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today we celebrate Rut, a woman whose loyalty and kindness personify that Torah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We celebrate the origin of Dovid Hamelech, whose passion and emotion jump off every page of Sefer Tehillim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And as we are moments from reciting Yizkor, we remember those who came before us, not necessarily for the words of Torah they taught us, but for the lives they exemplified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those of us who stay up all night learning did so not to amass knowledge. Shavuot is a day to ignite a fire within us, to feel the warmth of Rut, to emulate the fervor of Dovid Hamelech, and to consider not just the physical Torah, but the values our parents and grandparents handed us accompanying the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Torah remains safe on the shelves around us, but I urge you to use Yizkor to reflect on your personal Torah, the traditions and values passed to you, and to recall the links on the chain who serve as a conduit to everything we are today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u05e8\u05b7\u05e7 \u05d4\u05b4\u05e9\u05b8\u05bc\u05c1\u05de\u05b6\u05e8 \u05dc\u05b0\u05da\u05b8 \u05d5\u05bc\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05de\u05b9\u05e8 \u05e0\u05b7\u05e4\u05b0\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05da\u05b8 \u05de\u05b0\u05d0\u05b9\u05d3 \u05e4\u05b6\u05bc\u05df \u05ea\u05b4\u05bc\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05db\u05b7\u05bc\u05d7<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take utmost care and watch yourselves scrupulously, so that you do not forget<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of my Rabbeim recently shared a story that as he sat in the chair at the dentist, he began to doze off. When the dentist eventually woke him, he was terribly embarrassed for having fallen asleep. \u201cDon\u2019t worry Rabbi,\u201d said the dentist, \u201cI\u2019ve fallen asleep many times when you do your work on me!\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,74,78],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remoteshul.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}