Adding to Torah is more important for Torah than studying Torah, haredim

By Lev Tsitrin

There is a flood of near-daily reports coming out of Israel nowadays of the ultra-orthodox (known in Israel as “haredim”) leveraging Israel’s labyrinthine system of coalition governance to extort funding for haredi lifestyle — that of studying Torah in lieu of engaging in gainful occupations, or army service. Haredi tactics range from legislative — like recently ramming through a law that assigns Torah study a status of fundamental societal value — to acts of civil disobedience bordering on sabotage, like destroying conscription notices or organizing mass-protest sit-ins to block railroads and highways, bringing large parts of country to a standstill.

Those actions are underpinned by a central underlying notion that the raison d’etre of being a Jew is to study Torah. All else, be it work or army service, is a deviation from the true mission of a Jew. Hence, if living in a Jewish state distracts one from that definitional Jewish function, of what use is the Jewish state given that its upkeep of necessity distracts one from being a Jew in the only proper sense of the word — i.e, a student of Torah?

Which, to think of it, is a fascinating question: what do you do when the necessary means to achieve an end defeat the very end you are trying to achieve?

Needless to say, people with that mindset are not receptive to the crudely pragmatic retorts like “if everyone studies Torah, who will feed and defend us?” Answering it is none of haredi business (though they might throw in a one-word answer, “God”).. Their business is studying Torah.

So I’d suggest a somewhat different counter-question that pivot on what they do care about — namely, “would there be Torah if every Jew only studied Torah?”

The answer I think is not a resounding “no,” — but is pretty close to it.

But first, let’s understand what haredim mean by “Torah.” It is not just the five books of Moses that is the usual understanding of the term, but the totality of what followed — Talmud, commentaries, commentaries on commentaries, answers to legal questions, and such like — volumes upon volumes, forming a decent-size library.

So — what portion of this would exist if the hared way of life was in constant operation?

Genesis up to chapter 11 would certainly be included in Torah — but not much more. Once it came to Abraham (the first Jew), there would be nothing to record, for instead of his actions he would just be studying the Torah. His addition to it would be that he begat Isaac — and studied Torah.  Ditto for a haredi Isaac who, likewise, all his life studied those same eleven Genesis chapters — plus whatever comments on them were left by Abraham. Ditto a haredi Jacob — since all he would have done in his life would be to sit in a yeshiva and study Torah that comprised the very same eleven Genesis chapters plus his grandfather Abraham’s comments thereon, plus his father Isaac’ comments on Abraham’s comments.

But there would be nothing in the Torah of their own life stories — for a simple reason that they would not have had any life stories (other than studying the eleven-chapter Torah plus each other’s commentary, and begetting kids). After those initial eleven chapters, Torah would be extremely monotonous — such-and-such begot such-and such and studied Torah, and he in turn begot such-and-such and studied Torah, and he in turn — well, you get the idea. If every Jew were a haredi student of Torah, Torah would be a pretty boring text — a mere genealogical enumeration of those whose only recordable acts were begetting children and studying Torah that consisted of the first eleven chapters of Genesis plus the ancestral commentaries on them.

Such Torah would not be particularly studyable; it would bore one completely out of one’s mind, in fact. The only reason that Torah can be studied today is that the Jews it talks about did not study Torah — or at least did it on a very part-time basis, dedicating the bulk of their time on this earth to the business of living — i.e. toiling the land, tending the flocks, fighting, cheating each other — in other words, living their lives instead of studying how to live a life by analyzing how others lived their lives. Torah is a lively text because it is filled with life stories of people who lived, not studied Torah. If they did not live, but only study — as haredis do — not much of Torah would exist today.

Study alone isn’t life; it adds nothing — not to the country, not to the society and (since the haredim care so much about Torah) — not to Torah. Only those who live their lives add to Torah. If not for them, there would be no Torah to speak of — or to study, for that matter.

Torah is about life, not about studying life. To honor Torah, contribute to it — as do all those who serve in the army, and work. Their deeds are worth recording, to Torah or elsewhere. Merely studying Torah leaves Torah where it was if left unstudied.

Put simply, haredi argument that Torah study is the pivot of Jewish life is simply wrong — because living is life, study isn’t. If they truly care about Torah, haredis should better start contributing to it — through work and army service, and through studying Torah less.