Rabban Gamli'el, the son of Rabbi Yehudah the President [of the Sanhedrin] says: Study of Torah is nice together with earning a living, because toiling at both makes one forget sin; and any Torah [study] which does not have work with it is ultimately invalid and brings sin in its wake. And all people who work for the public should do so for the sake of heaven because the virtue of their ancestors assists them and their righteousness is everlasting; and you – I award you as great a reward as if you had done [it].
EXPLANATIONS (continued):
7:
This teaching, attributed to Rabban Gamli'el, too consists of three parts. (We have had occasion now more than once to note the tripartite formulation of many of the teachings in this early part of the tractate. It may even have been the formulation of all of them at an earlier stage.)
8:
The first part of our mishnah is concerned with the desirability of combining Torah study with making one's way in life economically. I translated the first phrase of the teaching of Rabban Gamli'el as "study of Torah is nice etc", because I wanted to reflect as accurately as possible the Hebrew words; but 'nice' is inappropriately weak since the Hebrew term, in this context, certainly denotes approbation and even recommendation. The study of Torah should go hand-in-hand with earning a living.
9:
In earlier times, it seems, the sages felt the need to emphasize the duty to find time for the study of Torah (in its widest sense) and not to let the vicissitudes of earning a living distract one from that duty. (Sadly, in certain quarters of the Jewish world today the opposite seems to prevail.) In his magnum opus, Mishneh Torah [Hilkhot Talmud Torah 1:8] Rambam first emphasizes the essential duty:
Every person in Israel must study Torah – be they poor or rich, physically sound or suffering, be they young or so old that they have lost their strength, and even if one is a mendicant who lives off charity by knocking on doors, and even people who are married with children – they must set a time for study of Torah both during the daytime and the nighttime…
Then [1:12] he clarifies:
If one has a trade and works for a living for three hours a day and [studies] Torah for nine hours…
Here Rambam is clearly exaggerating: even the great man himself did not live up to such an ideal. In a letter to Shemu'el Ibn Tibbon, dated September 30th 1199, he writes:
I live in Fostat and the Sultan [who was Rambam's employer] resides in Cairo; these two places are about two kilometres distant from each other. My duties to the Sultan are very heavy. I am obliged to visit him every day, early in the morning; and when he or any of his children, or any of the inmates of his harem, are indisposed I dare not quit Cairo, but must stay during the greater part of the day in the palace. It also frequently happens that one or two of the royal officers fall sick, and I must attend to their healing. Hence, as a rule, I go into Cairo very early in the day, and even if nothing unusual happens I do not return to Fostat until the afternoon. Then I am almost dying with hunger; I find the antechambers filled with people, both Jews and gentiles, nobles and common people, judges and bailiffs, friends and foes – a mixed multitude, who await the time of my return. I dismount from my animal, wash my hands, go forth to my patients, and entreat them to bear with me while I partake of some slight refreshment, the only meal I take in the twenty-four hours. Then I go forth to attend to my patients, write prescriptions and directions for their several ailments. Patients go in and out until nightfall, and sometimes even, I solemnly assure you, until two hours and more in the night. I converse with and prescribe for them while lying down from sheer fatigue; and when night falls I am so exhausted that I can scarcely speak. In consequence of this, no Jew can have any private interview with me, except on the Sabbath. On that day, the whole congregation, or, at least, the majority of the members, come unto me after the morning service, when I instruct them as to their proceedings during the whole week; we study together a little until noon, when they depart. Some of them return, and read with me after the afternoon service until evening prayers. In this manner I spend that day. I have here related to you only a part of what you would see, if you were to visit me…
By this time Rambam must already have been ill with the illness that eventually caused his death, for he also writes:
God knows that in order to write this to you I have escaped to a secluded spot where people would not think to find me, sometimes leaning for support against the wall, sometimes lying down on account of my excessive weakness, for I have become old and feeble.
If this great man was as busy as he describes what possible time (and energy) could he have found for Torah study?
10:
This is very different from the situation that prevails today. The vast majority of Jews, leading secular lives, find no time (or desire) for Torah study. And a large proportion of ultra-religious Jews find no time (or desire) for anything but Torah study and forego earning a living altogether. Obviously, Rambam would have been deeply shocked to find that so large a proportion of Jews have no time for and little interest in Torah study; but he would surely deplore the fact that some religious Jews do not support themselves by earning an honest living. He writes [Hilkhot Talmud Torah 3:10] quite explicitly about this:
Anyone who decides to study Torah [exclusively] – not to engage in a trade but to live off charity – is desecrating God's name, bringing the Torah into disrepute, quenching the brightness of the faith, doing himself a disservice and denying himself the life to come. [This is] because it is forbidden to derive any material benefit from the Torah in this world… Any Torah[-study] which is not accompanied by earning a living in the end will be void and simply encourage sin. Ultimately such a person will be robbing the public.
