Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Get A Job

Rav Meir Shapiro was going to Berlin to raise money for his Yeshiva, Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. Before he left, the Gerrer Rebbe the Imrei Emes told him the following: The Mishna says טוב תורה עם דרך ארץ it is important to learn AND work. However, the halacha is that if two brothers die because of bris milah, the third brother is not given a bris because of pikuach nefesh. So we are מבטל a mitzva from the Torah that involves a chiyuv kares in order to save a life. In the same way, so many people "die" [spiritually] when they go to work that we are מבטל the mishna and don't send our children to work. It wasn't clear to Rav Shapiro why the Imrei Emes was telling him this.

When Rav Shapiro arrived in Berlin someone asked him two questions: 1] Why do the boys in Poland sit in Yeshiva and learn and don't go to work. 2] Why do you Eastern European Jews believe that your Rabbis have ruach hakodesh?

Rav Shapiro happily replied that he has one answer for both questions and told him what the Imrei Emes had clairvoyantly told him before he left.

זכות הצדיקים יעזור ויגן ויושיע!!