Yeshiva Is the Best Preparation for Life | Letter #29

and it is Nissf Niss. We're going into the day of Yudal Niss and we are at the penultimate letter. I like to say penultimate because how often do you have a chance to use that word? Letter number 29. And I am still in beautiful, enchanting Mexico City, which you can see outside in the background. By the way, did you know Mexico City is at a very high altitude? I didn't until I got here and I said, "Why do I feel woozier than when I'm in Boulder, Colorado?" And then I looked it up. It's like much much higher even than the Rocky Mountains. So, I'm getting that uh natural altitude sickness or Rocky Mountain High or however you want to, but not 100% right now. All right, letter number 29. Wow. Can you imagine that? We're already at Kayo. We started, you remember when we started 29 days ago with a letter from Roshash. Remember the letter to Nish Benabad and uh now we're already almost back full circle to Roshashana again. We're at which of course is the birthday of the BMT and the Alter. Greetings and blessings. After a very long interval, I received your letter from the 13th of Elong with the pan. The pawn, we've said before, is pigion neph. It's a special type of correspondence that aid writes to abe with petitions for prayers. Um, again, I'll point out, I've pointed this out before, maybe not this 30 letters, 30 days, maybe last year, but it's always interesting to me. The Labava is busy with the weight of the world on his shoulders. And he tells individuals, hey, why don't you write often? Like, it's been a long time. Well, you haven't written in a while. So, it's interesting to me that the Naba points that out. It's been a long time since you've written. All right. So you wrote a letter and the pawn and I'm gonna I'm going to read that pan. This is customarily what the Reb would respond and do at an auspicious time. I'm going to read this pan at the aisle of the in your letter you write basically what's gone on in your life over the past few months and your resolution which you have also brought into action. There's a difference between a and actually following through. I told you the joke before about the three frogs on the log, right? Three frogs were sitting on a log and one decided to jump into the water. How many frogs are left on the log? Three. One decided to jump in the water. He didn't jump in the water. He just decided to. So, there's a difference between a resolution and actually carrying it out. The Eb gives him praise for both. You made a good resolution. And I see that you've actually made good on it. What is it? We're about to find out is of doesn't says dot dot dot ellipsis. We don't know is the yeshiva of labavich and it has many branches all over the world. I don't know which branch this young man enrolled in. But the Reb is telling him it's a good thing. You made a nice resolution and you carried through the resolution and now you're learning in yeshiva. Great. Okay. It is understood that you did great, very good and proper. And my opinion about this is known for a while. It's been known for a long time. Um, I've said this before. When the Reba says that something is known, if you don't know it, now you know. And it's something that we should know. Something that we should all have uh installed as one of one of our axioms. So the labavba's opinion, not that it would surprise you, but the labba's opinion about young men going to yeshiva, he's in favor. He likes it. Okay. So my opinion about this is known for a while. Was known from before. And certainly every single Jew should prepare themselves for going out into the world by first well let's find out that means exclusive and exclusive. They should dedicate their time exclusively and to studying our holy tora a of life. The study that is holy without mixing in any secular subjects as not even uh business training, professional training. So Jereba's opinion is long known and well known that every young man should prepare for life. Prepare for life. And this is going to be a theme in the letter. Prepare for life by going to yeshiva. And that means studying exclusively holy subjects. Yes, it's wonderful. If you're going to your kabad house and you have a shir every week or maybe even you have a shir every day, that's wonderful. But the Reba says you need to have an immersive experience and learn exclusively holy matters for a for a period in your life before you go out into the world. moving. Now says it's understood when I say that they should have at least a period in their life where they're immersed completely in before they go out into the world. I am talking about Bali as there are two basic uh modes that a Jew can be. Sometimes we call it the balik and theel or the and the zulen. I reverse that. The zool and the would be the balic and the um but basically there are those who study to full-time. That's what they do. And there are those who have a business or some means of of making a livelihood which takes much of their time. And of course there still of in the mitzvah of and therefore they learn regularly and they learn in all of their free time when they're not working and helping their family. But the Reb is saying here this idea of of of dedicating at least some time to immersive exclusive Torah study. He says, "I'm talking about the Bali." But it's a different thing when you're talking about people who want to be oil, who want to be full-time learners, then obviously they don't just immerse themselves in yeshiva for a period of time as a preparation before they go out into the world because they don't go out into the world. So, but make sure that that's understood that Nobody should think that everybody should learn in yeshiva for a period of time and then go out into the world. No, no. If someone's going to go out into the world anyway, then they should first study Torah exclusively for a period of time. But then there are people who don't go out into the world and they remain full-time learners. So the people who remain full-time learners their whole lives are dedicated to what we what we just described meaning uh constant immersion exclusively in holiness. So like the Rama mentions at the end of when he talks about Shvet Levy and he says Shvet Levy is actually a very expansive category because you can be an honorary member of Shvet Levy if you volunteer to dedicate yourself to holy matters. But at any rate, even somebody who is going to be involved in mundane affairs, by the way, do you know, you don't know because I haven't told anybody this. I finally realized what the word mundane means because I was I'm I am in Mexico right now and I was speaking to some of the local community and you know in my broken Spanish like a mix of Spanish English and I was mentioning something from par from the about uh it's about burning the fats on the altar in the day and in the night and the day is kadosha and the night is mundane and all of a sudden when I'm hearing the Spanish said back to me and I realized that that mundane is mundano which is mundo which is the world mundane means worldly it just hit me and that's why in matters of the world is mundane it never clicked for me what the worldly matters that's what mundane means worldly it's the same idea okay so somebody who's going to go out into the world and deal with secular although nothing in the Jewish life is truly secular because like the Reb said before, remember the Reb spoke to the teacher of agriculture. He said, King Solomon, the wisest of all men, said, "Know Hashem in all of your ways." So even when you're teaching agriculture, it's it's spiritual for a Jew. But relatively speaking, somebody who's going to go out into the world, world of business, and he's going to be involved in I won't call it secular, God forbid, but he's involved in things that are not overtly holy. So he must dedicate a period of his life to be exclusively immersed in Torah study in a yeshiva. Okay. Now this period of study in yeshiva is like a foundation for your future life. It's like a building. The whole strength of the building is based on the foundation. It makes no makes no sense to strengthen the walls if you don't first strengthen the foundation. So your future life, whatever it is that you're going to go do, is going to make be made stronger by learning in yeshiva. This is always the question that Baham ask. How does yeshiva prepare us for life? Why is knowing about uh an axe goring a cow going to make me better at uh being I don't know whatever it is, whatever profession or career that I want to go into. The Reb is explaining here that your whole life as a Jew is made stronger when you spend a period of time immersed in Torah study. It doesn't matter what you're going to go do afterwards. Everything is better. Everything is stronger through learning in yeshiva first. It's like the foundation of a building. You can build tall walls, but it won't help if you didn't bring build first a strong foundation. Someone's writing here, what's the age limit for attending yeshiva? Probably none. Okay, that's in the YouTube comments. Um, people learn yeshiva their their whole lives. Married men learn in something called kyo. But if you if you are a newcomer to yeshiva and you never studied in yeshiva, contact me after uh the the live stream, you can uh email rabbis soulwords.org and I will give you some contact information where you could look into possibly attending a yeshiva full-time for somebody who hasn't yet had that opportunity in life. Okay. You should know that the time that you're spending now, the years actually the says dedicated to Torah study presently. It's not only for the sake of the spiritual reward. Obviously, there is spiritual reward for learning Torah. Obviously, but that's not the only reward. It's easy to understand this is actually a preparation for all of life. Don't think that by learning in yeshiva the only thing that's going to do for you is score you points in heaven. I mean, I will, but it's also on the most practical level going to prepare you better for the rest of your life. If somebody out there is listening and they're wondering if they should dedicate some time, yes, you should go learn full-time in yeshiva and tell them that the Reb's letter came to you and pushed you to do it. All right. The Reb always adds, "You should go and fulfill this with a with a joyous heart." Like, yeah, it's great. You're doing it, but enjoy it. Enjoy it. You're doing a good thing. Do it with joy. You should succeed in your studies and in your performance of mitzvah during the time period that you mentioned. And again this time period in yeshiva is going to increase your success for the rest of your life. Now another thing emerges here that is understood a preparation of a few months of just a few months a maspic. It is not enough. And if you can't do a few consecutive years, few months is not enough. You got to do a few years. If you can't do a few consecutive years like in a row, at least set it up that the cumulative amount of time will be equivalent to years. So you could immerse yourself and go for uh six months here and then six months there. But just make sure that it adds up to uh to a few years. And whoever increases it is increased for him. In other words, the rich get richer. If you do more, it's going to create the virtuous circle and you're going to be able to do more. The more you do, the more you're going to be able to do. Hear what I'm saying? Okay. of last part of the letter regarding what you write about uh money for guess the guy had some money I don't know if it was significant money um I don't know he sounds like a young guy so I don't know if he had significant money or not but he had some money and he wanted to know uh what to do with it he wanted to give it anonymously so he asked the how should he deal with giving his money anonymously ly it would be proper to give your to the fund at the yeshiva that you're attending. Presumably, it's the same yeshiva and you can even give it without disclosing whose money it is. you can give it to the yeshiva administration who handles the yeshiva's fund and you don't have to tell them where you got it from. So it's interesting that Eb is encouraging this young man that where his should go should be the same place where he's learning. I don't know if that's something to extrapolate the more general rule, but I found it interesting with blessings for good news and for success in the above. And remember this is just 12 days before Roshashana. The Reb says you should be written and sealed for good. And that is letter number 29. I have to catch a plane back to New York and I will see you online tomorrow night for letter number 30 or uh if you're at the oil maybe you'll run into me and uh tell me your favorite letter of the 30 letters. Okay.