Rambam Yomi: Talmud Torah- Chapters 1-3
Talmud Torah (1)
Only men are obligated to learn Torah. They are also obligated to support a family. Many times, they go for a little drink after work. The ideas is to spend as little time with your family as is possible. This is what makes for a good husband.
Men are also obligated to teach their children. This keeps men from getting stuck with having nothing to talk about when they are around family. Then they are obligated to teach their grandchildren (‘Your children and children’s children’), and the cycle of learning continues till you end up going broke and sending your child to a Yeshiva day school.
If they are wise- men are obligated to teach other people’s children. Again, there is another obligation placed on the wise people. This keeps even more people from wanting to be wise. Since there is no obligation on the dumb, the stupid of us can relax and enjoy their Home Entertainment System.
‘And you shall teach them to your sons, to speak about them’ (Devarim 11:19). This is not Lashon Harah. This is talking about the words of the Torah. It is not a Torah commandment to talk about your children to other people. Most Jewish parents have misinterpreted this obligation to mean talking about your children in front of them, when the child is standing right there.
Learning is always mentioned before doing, because learning leads to action. This is true for most non-high school Yeshiva students. My nephew has still not helped his mom clean a Shabbat table, or gotten me an extra blanket that I needed in order to fall asleep.
Action doesn’t necessarily lead to learning. The only action that leads to learning is work. Most people, if given a choice between work and learning, would go with yelling at a good buddy about how Abaya is wrong.
If your child is not brilliant, then you teach yourself first. Stupid kids do not get taught more than necessary. This is why you should be sending the dumb ones to public school. Do not waste your money on them. Buy them an Xbox or something to keep them occupied. They will not pick up on the fact that you are spending extra on their siblings’ education. They are too dumb.
Got to teach the kids. Kids are not good at taking initiative when it comes to learning.
1:7- Don’t teach the Oral Torah for money. It is not a lucrative business. Better businesses might be getting involved in real estate. They really didn’t monetize the Torah business well. That whole no working on Shabbat has gotten many proud Jews fired.
1:9- The wise men of Israel worked. Just a little message to those not so wise who are not doing the army or national service right now, drinking a lot of alcohol on a nightly basis, making me ask why the Israeli arsim are mostly religious Jews, as if Rav Avadia Yosef’s last psak was to wear tight jeans and use a lot of hair-gel (those were a couple of Hebrew words in there).
1:10- Learn until your death ‘Maybe it will be removed from your heart, all the days of your life’ (Devarim 4:9). You are never allowed to relax. Even on vacation you’ve got to learn, you heretics who think ‘I am going to have fun on this vacation.’ No. You learn.
I guess this whole connecting with Gd thing is a different way of seeing this world. They don’t have movies about how exciting it is to learn Torah. There are reasons for everything, I guess.
1:11-12- How to learn? That we can’t tell you. That would make it too easy to understand, and as we learn in chapter 3, it is supposed to be painful.
We can tell you that you have to do it. Some Torah, some oral Torah, some trying to understand it. You split up your day right. When you are about to relax after work, you learn. When you are finished learning, you learn. You a little and then learn and then go to sleep. Maybe say hello to the family. When you get smart, you just go into the deeper understanding and reasoning for what we do. And then you ask yourself ‘Why am I learning?’
1:13- Women learning Torah doesn’t get the same reward. As man is obligated, his reward is greater.
Just thought women should understand why I will not be helping out around the house once I get married.
Talmud Torah (2)
Make sure there is a teacher of children, where you live. No child should have a happy childhood.
2:2- Start them off at around 6. This is the system which seems to be used around the world. Once a child is ready to start tracing letters, they are ready to learn.
You teach the kids and force them to learn. Hit them, to instill fear. But abuse should only be done by a certified child abuser. Some people take this too far. A real professional child educator does not leave marks. Use a small strap, not a stick like an enemy. Maybe a belt, like a dad. Many have asked which side of the belt? If you are asking those questions, leave the child beating to the educator. To note, many of well-adjusted Jewish children have overcome ADHD due to this well formulated technique.
Another note: We do not support child abuse. We support education.
2:3-A teacher cannot be lazy or do other stuff. Has to be decent. Otherwise they are foregoing the work of H.’ L: If you are teaching kids, you must try to make it look like you care, or you will be out of a job.
2:4- Got to be married to teach. It has nothing to do with the kids, as these people are smart enough not to have them. Most spouses are not trustworthy. Is this a good time to ask why the divorce rate is so hi? Maybe not. I will venture to say that there are too many single teachers. Single people should not be allowed to work. They should be quarantined.
2:5- 25 kids to a class is the number. My school had three to ten and most of us are not well-adjusted. Which goes to show how messed up the modern education system is. If you do not use a strap, they do not learn.
2:7- Because of Yeshaya’s statement of ‘Make the Torah and Glorious,’ we do not stop people from opening up Torah places, even if it is taking away from somebody else. It is about spreading the wordof the Torah, and you cannot stop Chabad from coming to your community.
Talmud Torah (3)
3:1- There are 3 crowns and you cannot be a king or a priest. The crown of Torah is there for all of Israel. Torah is there for all of us. You are not a loser. You are a Torah winner. You just have to work real hard.
3:3- Learning Torah is tantamount to all the mitzvoth, because it leads to action. Therefore it comes before action everywhere. My nephew is a little different, as he has been learning a lot of Torah recently, and still doesn’t help anybody.
3:6- Your reward is equal to the pain. It is supposed to be painful. This is why you sit in Yeshiva for 10 hours a day, when you want to be at a university, partying. You sit for 10 hours a day and they make sure you are learning it in a language you do not understand. This is to make it more painful and rewarding. This is why you have to spend 6 of the 10 hours trying to figure out why we are still learning in Aramaic.
Acquiring the crown of Torah is not acquiring an expensive crown. It is about acquiring a little bread that you are eating with water, eating that stuff on the ground. Which is why the not so smart people decide that they do not want to waste their time acquiring it. Well let me tell you!!!
3:8- ‘Torah is not in the heavens or over the seas.’ The Torah is right in front of you. Less work equals more Torah. No trying to be a somebody. That is the mistake that parents make, instilling in their kids the idea of aspirations.
3:10- Not working is a chilul H’ (profaning H’s name). You’ve got to work, can’t be a burden on society. And now I am also confused.
3:11-12- (Tehilim 128) ‘If you eat because of the actions of your hands, you are praised and good will come to you.’ Praised in this world and good in the world to come. Love that. You question why life sucks. But it will be good at some point. Just remember that your pain is really good and you will love life. You will start hoping for even worse. ‘Just had a nail hammered into me. Awesome. Perfect time to learn Torah…get a little more reward. It is painful as anything.’
Torah does not come to those who do not kill themselves for it. A little harsh? OK. Maybe killing himself to be in the tent of the wise. That sounds a little easier. It doesn’t come through enjoyment of eating, so do not think that going to a Farberegen and getting drunk is going to be your next step in becoming a wise man.
It is the Torah learned through pain which is remembered. The hard times are what makes us the wise person. The hard times in the Beit Midrash. The times spent alone trying to figure it out. The time on the ball field- ‘No pain no gain.’ A lesson can be learned from the very big athletic people who do not have to try hard.
3:13- Torah is acquired at night, so do not get sleep. All that stuff the Rambam was saying in the previous section, about being healthy, that is not the goal of learning Torah. The connection with Gd through joy happens at night. If there is joy, that bothers me, as I am not suffering. I don’t know if the Rambam is supporting happiness or pain. This is all too much for me. And this is why I am a big supporter of extended siestas and sleeping more during the day.
My friend Mikakel KaleeKakoo who recently became more religious, has spent many days in the hospital recently, due to his self-inflicted pain and none of it had anything to do with learning Torah. The guy still can’t read Hebrew.
The Torah is full of brilliant psukim about suffering so that you will prosper. But as we learned, you cannot do it so that you will prosper.
I think we are all confused enough to move into the next chapter.
Only men are obligated to learn Torah. They are also obligated to support a family. Many times, they go for a little drink after work. The ideas is to spend as little time with your family as is possible. This is what makes for a good husband.
Men are also obligated to teach their children. This keeps men from getting stuck with having nothing to talk about when they are around family. Then they are obligated to teach their grandchildren (‘Your children and children’s children’), and the cycle of learning continues till you end up going broke and sending your child to a Yeshiva day school.
If they are wise- men are obligated to teach other people’s children. Again, there is another obligation placed on the wise people. This keeps even more people from wanting to be wise. Since there is no obligation on the dumb, the stupid of us can relax and enjoy their Home Entertainment System.
‘And you shall teach them to your sons, to speak about them’ (Devarim 11:19). This is not Lashon Harah. This is talking about the words of the Torah. It is not a Torah commandment to talk about your children to other people. Most Jewish parents have misinterpreted this obligation to mean talking about your children in front of them, when the child is standing right there.
Learning is always mentioned before doing, because learning leads to action. This is true for most non-high school Yeshiva students. My nephew has still not helped his mom clean a Shabbat table, or gotten me an extra blanket that I needed in order to fall asleep.
Action doesn’t necessarily lead to learning. The only action that leads to learning is work. Most people, if given a choice between work and learning, would go with yelling at a good buddy about how Abaya is wrong.
If your child is not brilliant, then you teach yourself first. Stupid kids do not get taught more than necessary. This is why you should be sending the dumb ones to public school. Do not waste your money on them. Buy them an Xbox or something to keep them occupied. They will not pick up on the fact that you are spending extra on their siblings’ education. They are too dumb.
Got to teach the kids. Kids are not good at taking initiative when it comes to learning.
1:7- Don’t teach the Oral Torah for money. It is not a lucrative business. Better businesses might be getting involved in real estate. They really didn’t monetize the Torah business well. That whole no working on Shabbat has gotten many proud Jews fired.
1:9- The wise men of Israel worked. Just a little message to those not so wise who are not doing the army or national service right now, drinking a lot of alcohol on a nightly basis, making me ask why the Israeli arsim are mostly religious Jews, as if Rav Avadia Yosef’s last psak was to wear tight jeans and use a lot of hair-gel (those were a couple of Hebrew words in there).
1:10- Learn until your death ‘Maybe it will be removed from your heart, all the days of your life’ (Devarim 4:9). You are never allowed to relax. Even on vacation you’ve got to learn, you heretics who think ‘I am going to have fun on this vacation.’ No. You learn.
I guess this whole connecting with Gd thing is a different way of seeing this world. They don’t have movies about how exciting it is to learn Torah. There are reasons for everything, I guess.
1:11-12- How to learn? That we can’t tell you. That would make it too easy to understand, and as we learn in chapter 3, it is supposed to be painful.
We can tell you that you have to do it. Some Torah, some oral Torah, some trying to understand it. You split up your day right. When you are about to relax after work, you learn. When you are finished learning, you learn. You a little and then learn and then go to sleep. Maybe say hello to the family. When you get smart, you just go into the deeper understanding and reasoning for what we do. And then you ask yourself ‘Why am I learning?’
1:13- Women learning Torah doesn’t get the same reward. As man is obligated, his reward is greater.
Just thought women should understand why I will not be helping out around the house once I get married.
Talmud Torah (2)
Make sure there is a teacher of children, where you live. No child should have a happy childhood.
2:2- Start them off at around 6. This is the system which seems to be used around the world. Once a child is ready to start tracing letters, they are ready to learn.
You teach the kids and force them to learn. Hit them, to instill fear. But abuse should only be done by a certified child abuser. Some people take this too far. A real professional child educator does not leave marks. Use a small strap, not a stick like an enemy. Maybe a belt, like a dad. Many have asked which side of the belt? If you are asking those questions, leave the child beating to the educator. To note, many of well-adjusted Jewish children have overcome ADHD due to this well formulated technique.
Another note: We do not support child abuse. We support education.
2:3-A teacher cannot be lazy or do other stuff. Has to be decent. Otherwise they are foregoing the work of H.’ L: If you are teaching kids, you must try to make it look like you care, or you will be out of a job.
2:4- Got to be married to teach. It has nothing to do with the kids, as these people are smart enough not to have them. Most spouses are not trustworthy. Is this a good time to ask why the divorce rate is so hi? Maybe not. I will venture to say that there are too many single teachers. Single people should not be allowed to work. They should be quarantined.
2:5- 25 kids to a class is the number. My school had three to ten and most of us are not well-adjusted. Which goes to show how messed up the modern education system is. If you do not use a strap, they do not learn.
2:7- Because of Yeshaya’s statement of ‘Make the Torah and Glorious,’ we do not stop people from opening up Torah places, even if it is taking away from somebody else. It is about spreading the wordof the Torah, and you cannot stop Chabad from coming to your community.
Talmud Torah (3)
3:1- There are 3 crowns and you cannot be a king or a priest. The crown of Torah is there for all of Israel. Torah is there for all of us. You are not a loser. You are a Torah winner. You just have to work real hard.
3:3- Learning Torah is tantamount to all the mitzvoth, because it leads to action. Therefore it comes before action everywhere. My nephew is a little different, as he has been learning a lot of Torah recently, and still doesn’t help anybody.
3:6- Your reward is equal to the pain. It is supposed to be painful. This is why you sit in Yeshiva for 10 hours a day, when you want to be at a university, partying. You sit for 10 hours a day and they make sure you are learning it in a language you do not understand. This is to make it more painful and rewarding. This is why you have to spend 6 of the 10 hours trying to figure out why we are still learning in Aramaic.
Acquiring the crown of Torah is not acquiring an expensive crown. It is about acquiring a little bread that you are eating with water, eating that stuff on the ground. Which is why the not so smart people decide that they do not want to waste their time acquiring it. Well let me tell you!!!
3:8- ‘Torah is not in the heavens or over the seas.’ The Torah is right in front of you. Less work equals more Torah. No trying to be a somebody. That is the mistake that parents make, instilling in their kids the idea of aspirations.
3:10- Not working is a chilul H’ (profaning H’s name). You’ve got to work, can’t be a burden on society. And now I am also confused.
3:11-12- (Tehilim 128) ‘If you eat because of the actions of your hands, you are praised and good will come to you.’ Praised in this world and good in the world to come. Love that. You question why life sucks. But it will be good at some point. Just remember that your pain is really good and you will love life. You will start hoping for even worse. ‘Just had a nail hammered into me. Awesome. Perfect time to learn Torah…get a little more reward. It is painful as anything.’
Torah does not come to those who do not kill themselves for it. A little harsh? OK. Maybe killing himself to be in the tent of the wise. That sounds a little easier. It doesn’t come through enjoyment of eating, so do not think that going to a Farberegen and getting drunk is going to be your next step in becoming a wise man.
It is the Torah learned through pain which is remembered. The hard times are what makes us the wise person. The hard times in the Beit Midrash. The times spent alone trying to figure it out. The time on the ball field- ‘No pain no gain.’ A lesson can be learned from the very big athletic people who do not have to try hard.
3:13- Torah is acquired at night, so do not get sleep. All that stuff the Rambam was saying in the previous section, about being healthy, that is not the goal of learning Torah. The connection with Gd through joy happens at night. If there is joy, that bothers me, as I am not suffering. I don’t know if the Rambam is supporting happiness or pain. This is all too much for me. And this is why I am a big supporter of extended siestas and sleeping more during the day.
My friend Mikakel KaleeKakoo who recently became more religious, has spent many days in the hospital recently, due to his self-inflicted pain and none of it had anything to do with learning Torah. The guy still can’t read Hebrew.
The Torah is full of brilliant psukim about suffering so that you will prosper. But as we learned, you cannot do it so that you will prosper.
I think we are all confused enough to move into the next chapter.
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