On Visiting Your Rebbi on Yom Tov:

 On Visiting One’s Rebbi on Yom Tov: Adapted from the Torah of Rav Yitzchok Hutner, zt”l

By Eliakim Willner

Eliakim Willner is author of “Nesivos Olam – Nesiv HaTorah: An Appreciation of Torah Study”, a translation with commentary of a work by the Maharal of Prague, published by Artscroll/Mesorah. He is currently working on a continuation of the Nesivos Olam series, “Nesivos Olam – Nesiv HaAvodah: The Philosophy and Practice of Prayer”.

 

The Basis for the Obligation

“A person is obligated to visit his Rebbi on yom tov” (Sukkah 27a). The basis of this obligation is not simply a matter of honoring the Rebbi; rather it is intended to be a depiction of how a student must accept from his Rebbi. What kind of acceptance, specifically, is the obligation intending to depict?

At the end of parshas Ki Savo, in the context of Moshe delivering his final words to the nation after forty years in the desert, the posuk states (Devarim 29:3), “Hashem has not given you a heart to know… until this day” and Chazal comment, as quoted in Rashi, “No one can fathom the depths of his Rebbi’s mind… before forty years. Hence, Hashem was not strict with you until this day, but from now on He will be strict with you; and therefore, “Observe the words of this bris…”.

Time-Delayed Understanding

These words teach us an incredible insight: it is possible for the divrei Torah conveyed by the Rebbi to become actionable to the student only after a long interval from when they were received, for Chazal are very clear that after forty years since the teaching was received there is more of a requirement that they be absorbed then there was at a time closer to when they were received.

Let us take careful note of the choice of words employed by Chazal to express this requirement –  amida al daas HaRav, “to fathom the depths of the Rebbi’s mind”. What form of understanding, exactly, are Chazal intending to convey with these words?

We are familiar, by now, with our oft-repeated explanation of the answer Chazal give (Yerushalmi Brachos 5:2) in response to the question, why was the Havdalah recitation inserted into the “…endow man with intelligence, daas” blessing? They answer, “without daas, whence separation?” Intelligence is required to distinguish between different things. In Hebrew the word daas implies a connection; a joining together, as in (Beraishis 4:1) “And Odom knew Chava, his wife…”. An ox is not safeguarded if it is handed over to a watchman who lacks daas, because the watchman does not “connect” to the responsibility he was entrusted with and is therefore unreliable.

We elsewhere explained the phrase “without daas, when separation?” by noting that being able to grasp when things are connected and when they are divergent are two sides of the same coin and a person who cannot grasp connections cannot grasp divergencies, either. Thus Havadalah is inserted into the bracha of daas because it is daas that enables us to grasp the distinctions between sacred and mundane, etc. – and grasping these distinctions is critical to our ability to serve Hashem.

Knowing Our Rebbeim

We come now to our central, novel point: It is possible for a student to understand the Torah teachings of his Rebbi on the deepest level; his understanding can even extend to being able to build new ideas on the basis of his Rebbi’s concepts, but he may still be totally bereft of the ability to “to fathom the depths of the Rebbi’s mind”. A student can only be said to have that ability when, in the process of absorbing his Rebbi’s teachings, he perceives the connection between the Rebbi’s individuality – his unique character – and  the Torah he is imparting. As we said, the ability to discern connections and disconnections is the hallmark of daas.

Just as, with his ability to understand, the student can process his Rebbi’s wisdom, so also, with the ability “to fathom the depths of the Rebbi’s mind”, the student can process the Rebbi’s unique connection with that wisdom.

There are tell-tale signs that reliably enable the observer to determine whether or not students have this ability. For example, there are perceptive and sharp students who, nonetheless, find it difficult to listen to the same thoughts expressed multiple times by the Rebbi. By and large this is an indication that they lack the ability to “to fathom the depths of the Rebbi’s mind”. Similarly, these same students will become fidgety when they do not clearly understand what the Rebbi is teaching.

[Perhaps we can say that students who exhibit those symptoms are focused exclusively on the content of the shiur and are oblivious to an entirely different level of understanding, which is focused on why these particular concepts, expressed in that particular way, using these particular words and manner of delivery, could not have emanated from anyone other than the Rebbi who is currently delivering them.

Thus if they have heard this shiur before, they do not see the point in focusing on that content again. And if they do not understand the shiur’s content they see no benefit in continuing to listen to it. They see the shiur only in terms of its content. Whereas to students who are sensitive to the nuances of the relationship between the Rebbi’s presentation and his personality, there will always be new facets revealed about that relationship even in a reprise of the shiur. New facets will be revealed that transcend the content of the shiur]

Be a Growing Person – Not an Ox!

Now, the Gemara teaches that “a one-day old ox is already called an ox” (Baba Kama 65a). An ox has its salient characteristics at birth and those remain essentially static for the duration of the ox’s life. But the abilities of human beings evolve over time. The amount of time separating a just-obtained but dormant kernel of knowledge, from that knowledge in actualized form, is a function of the significance of that kernel of knowledge.

The most rarefied form of knowledge transfer is that of a student absorbing the Torah teachings of his Rebbi, and the most rarefied subset of that variety of knowledge transfer is the ability to “to fathom the depths of the Rebbi’s mind”. Therefore it is not surprising that Chazal assessed the gap between dormant and actualized for this ability to be forty years. “No one can fathom the depths of his Rebbi’s mind before forty years” – that is, forty years from when the knowledge transfer for this form of knowledge began.

To one who properly considers what is involved, the extent of the soul-penetrating labors required to receive and absorb Torah wisdom is truly mind-boggling. Anyone who deludes himself into thinking that the fruits of obtaining Torah knowledge are ripe just at the moment the knowledge is received, and if the benefits of the knowledge are not immediately apparent, they will never be apparent – such a person is studying in the manner of “a one-day old ox is already called an ox”, since he fails to appreciate the distinction between the potential of dormant knowledge and the actualization of that knowledge. His one-dimensional view of Torah knowledge acquisition does not take into account the fact that the knowledge takes form over time and does not come into full bloom immediately. The “ox” that he started off with will be the same “ox” that he will continue to have as time passes. Such a person will not achieve the ability “to fathom the depths of the Rebbi’s mind” since absorbing that form of knowledge can only happen over time.

The Unique Segulah of Visiting One’s Rebbi on Yom Tov

Visiting one’s Rebbi on the holidays is uniquely suited to absorbing the teaching we refer to as “fathoming the depths of the Rebbi’s mind”. The purpose of the holiday visit is not to hear this or that particular teaching from the Rebbi. Its goal is, rather, to understand the workings of the Rebbi’s mind. The student will walk away from the visit with a deeper understanding of the relationship between the Rebbi’s essence and the Torah he imparts.

[Perhaps the less formal setting typical of such a visit will provide another level of insight into the Rebbi’s individuality and its relationship to his Torah, and the repeated exposure to that setting, holiday visit after holiday visit, will provide the time element necessary in order to bring the additional insight into full bloom.]

May we all be zoche this yom tov and every yom tov to deepening our understanding not only of the Torah we have learned from our Rebbeim, but also of how the Torah of our Rebbeim is intimately bound with the persons of our Rebbeim themselves.

(Based on Igros U’Ksovim, Igeres 12)