Today Everyone Can Study Torah

The Daily Strengthening from our teacher, the holy Gaon and Tzaddik Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a (may he live long and good days) – "Today there are Kollels and donors, everyone can study Gemara"

Sunday, 22nd of Tevet 5786 – "If his son is diligent and sharp and his learning remains with him"

These are his holy words:

One must study Torah day and night, twenty-four hours a day, but if you have a wise son, then the son goes to study.

Because in the past there were no Kollels (institutes for advanced Torah study), so everyone had to provide parnassah (livelihood) for the home, unlike today when there are Kollels and generous people who donate.

In the past, there was no one who donated; everyone worked for themselves. Rabbi Akiva had to draw water. Rabbi Akiva would buy a bundle of wood every day, light it, and the smoke would enter the neighbors' homes. The neighbors would come to scream at him, asking why he was filling their whole house with smoke; the entire house was full of smoke.

Rabbi Akiva answered, "I am warming myself, I am cooking on it, it gives me a little light – so I can study the Gemara (Talmud)."

In the past, everyone had to take care of themselves; there were no Kollels. If the father went to study, there was no one to provide parnassah (livelihood) for the home, or the father would go to study and one of the children would go to grind at the millstone. Today there are lawyers and doctors; in the past, there were no lawyers, so they went to work at the millstone to grind wheat.

In the past, they had to provide parnassah (livelihood) for the home on their own, so either the father went to study Torah or the son. If the father was sharp, then he studied Torah; if the son was sharp, then the son studied Torah.

The Gemara (Talmud) says, "The Gemara says (Kiddushin 29b-30a), 'And you shall teach them to your sons' (Deuteronomy 11:19)" and not your daughters.

[The Sages taught: If he needs to study and his son needs to study – he takes precedence over his son. Rabbi Yehuda says: If his son is diligent and sharp and his learning remains with him – his son takes precedence over him.]

So, "if his son is diligent and sharp," there is a diligent son, a sharp son, he can study for 8 hours, he doesn't fall asleep – then he goes to study Torah.