My Trip To Roanoke Virgina

This Torah class is brought to you by torahanytime.com. A Torah Anytime original series. I just passed through the city of Roanoke, Virginia and it immediately brought me back to something that happened here years ago back when I was in high school. I had a friend, my Havruta at the time, who had a stutter and he struggled with it deeply. He tried everything he could to fix it. Speech therapy, exercises, practice, and nothing really worked. And at some point he heard that a world-renowned expert who works with people who stutter would be coming to Roanoke, Virginia and he would meet with small groups privately to help them. So my friend made a decision. He packed a suitcase, he went alone, he checked into a motel here in Roanoke, and he spent a few days meeting with this expert trying to figure out how to get rid of his stutter. Now back in Yeshiva, a friend and I heard that he was there by himself, a teenager in a motel, struggling in alone in a city he didn't know. And something in us said, "We have got to go visit him." So I said to my friend, "Let's go." And he looks at me and says, "What do you mean let's go? We're in Yeshiva. You can't just leave. That's bitul Torah." And I remember thinking about it for a second and I said, "Okay, well let's go ask one of our Rebbe." So we went over and we asked if we should go. Is it bitul Torah? And I'll never forget the answer my Rebbe gave us. He looked at us and he said, "Bitul Torah? This is Torah. Going to visit him isn't learning Torah, it's living it." So we rented a car and we drove. We brought him a cake, nothing fancy, just something to show up with. And we surprised him and I still remember his face, the relief, the happiness, just knowing he wasn't alone in that motel room in Roanoke. And we spent the day together in a park eating and laughing and just being there for him. And then it was time to go back. We got into the car late at night, exhausted. My my are falling asleep in the back seat and as I drive back to Yeshiva, I remember sitting there driving in silence. And I could still hear my rebbe's voice in my head. "This isn't learning, Tyra. It's living it." You see, sometimes people make a mistake. They split life into two separate worlds. There's learning Tyra, and then there's living life. When I'm in the basement that's Tyra. When I step outside, that's life. But that division is completely wrong. Because Tyra is not something we do in one room and then put it down when we leave it. Tyra is Amanas Lasas. It's meant to shape who you become. If you're learning Tyra intensely, but you're a rotten potato outside the basement, there's something about your Lima Tyra that is off. Because Tyra isn't a spiritual exercise that we perform because Hashem said so. Tyra is the most powerful system in existence to refine a human being, to turn you into the ambassadors of Hashem in this world. There's no time of the year that this idea can be more important than the days of Sefira. Sefira we count the days between Pesach and Shavuot not just as a timeline, but as a transformation from leaving Mitzrayim to becoming a nation capable of receiving Tyra. And we mark that counting period with Sefira. The tragedy of the Talmidim of Rabbi Akiva not being mechabed their friends properly. The tragedy of the Talmidim of Rabbi Akiva is not just historical, it's eternal. Because it's reminding us we march towards Shavuot that you can be a Talmid who learns in Tyra all day long and still fail the most basic test of Tyra itself, and that is having good middos. Learning Tyra but being an arrogant, uncompassionate, selfish slob is not a contradiction you can live with. Because Tyra without good middos is Tyra completely misunderstood. Tyra is supposed to humble you. If someone claims to have learned a lot of Tyra and yet is arrogant and condescending and inconsiderate, stay away because something in that picture is broken. Real Torah doesn't make you louder. It makes you softer. Doesn't make you superior. It makes you more responsible. It doesn't pull you away from people. It pulls you deeper into them. And that's what I learned in Roanoke. That sometimes the greatest Torah moment is not the one in the basement at all. Sometimes it's sitting in a park with a friend who's struggling and realizing that this this is exactly what Hashem wanted all along. It's not Torah being learned. It's Torah being lived. You've just experienced another Torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com.