The daily strengthening from The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a — “Today there are kollelim and donors; everyone can learn Gemara”

Thursday, 17 Sivan 5782 — “If his son is diligent and sharp, and his learning will endure in his hand,” these are his holy words:

A person needs to learn Torah day and night—twenty-four hours. But if you have a wise son, then the son should go and learn.

Because in the past there were no kollelim, so everyone had to support the home—not like today, when there are kollelim and there are generous people who donate.

Once, there was no one donating; each person worked for himself. Rabbi Akiva had to draw water. Rabbi Akiva would buy a bundle of wood every day, light it, and the smoke would drift into the neighbors. The neighbors would come shouting, “Why are you smoking up our whole house?” The whole house was smoke.

Rabbi Akiva answered: “I’m warming myself. I cook on it. It gives me a bit of light—so I can learn the Gemara.”

In the past, everyone had to take care of himself. There were no kollelim. If a father went to learn, there was no one to support the home—unless the father went to learn and one of the children went to grind at the millstones. Today there are lawyers and doctors. Once there were no lawyers, so people went to work at the millstones, grinding wheat.

In the past, they had to support the home on their own. So either the father went to learn Torah, or the son did. If the father was sharp, he learned Torah. If the son was sharp, then the son learned Torah.

The Gemara says—“The Gemara says (Kiddushin 29b–30a), ‘And you shall teach them to your sons’ (Deuteronomy 11:19), and not to your daughters.”

[Our Rabbis taught: If he has to learn and his son has to learn—he takes precedence over his son. Rabbi Yehudah says: If his son is diligent and sharp, and his learning will endure in his hand—his son takes precedence over him.]

So, “if his son is diligent and sharp”—if there is a son who is diligent, a son who is sharp, who can learn for eight hours and doesn’t fall asleep—then he should go learn Torah.