“When I was studying in Israel after high school, my roommate and I had some interesting late-night conversations. One of our favorite recurring themes was a debate that, as we discovered, showed up long before our gap year – for instance, in the following Talmudic passage: Rabbi Tarfon and the Elders were reclining in the attic of the house of Nit’za in Lod. This question was asked before them: Is talmud (study) greater, or is ma’aseh (action/deeds) greater? Rabbi Tarfon answered and said: ma’aseh is greater. Rabbi Akiva answered and said: talmud is greater. They all answered and said: talmud is greater, for the talmud brings to ma’aseh. (Kiddushin 40b)The Talmudic analysis continues beyond that point, of course, but just those lines presented plenty of fodder. We, too, wanted to know which was of more value – the pure pursuit of Torah knowledge, or the implementation of its laws and principles in action? While the above passage seemed to address our debate perfectly, its conclusion was more ambiguous than we each wanted to believe; each of us tried to argue that this passage supported our own position.”
Read more, from TorahTutors Director Sarah Rudolph, at https://jewinthecity.com/2022/08/torah-study-as-action-growth-and-hope/?fbclid=IwAR1jGGVFvS-0wGlDLHRyavsZQyxWDtJaUuRmUa1LEEOnFf9m4PFgMfuCNJ4
