"Zog mir a shtickl Torah -- Tell me a little Torah"

"The Yiddish phrase encapsulates the secret of Jewish survival"



This snippet is adapted from Rabbi Meir Y. Solovbeichik's article, Torah and Incarnation. In the October 2010 issue of First Things magazine.


"As Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the chief rabbi of great Britain, notes, In the shtickl, the small township of Eastern Europe, when Jews met, one would say to the other: Zog mir a shtickl Torah -- Tell me a little Torah..."

Rabbi Sacks goes on to explain:

""It's words were their intimations of infinity, it's letters the solid shapes of mysteries to be decoded."

Now, Rabbi Soloveichik makes a salient point:

"If there are in the in the Torah limitless insights waiting to be found, then Jewish survival is assured:

"For as long as there are hiddushim to be discovered, God will provide Jews to discover them.

"The Torah's infinity guarantees Jewish eternity.

"Communion with the divine through Torah learning brings the Jew into God's eternal time.

"All the Jews who ever lived were present on Mount Sinai, the rabbis teach.

"Mount Sinai remains eternally preset among us, always available to be studied and obeyed.

"All the generations of Israel, all its sages and teachers, assemble on the study benches of the Beit Midrash when Torah is learned.

"Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik asked, When I enter the classroom I am filled with despair and pessimism. I always ask myself: Can there be a dialogue between an old teacher and young students, between a rebbe in his Indian summer an dboys enjoying the spring of their lives?

"But the generations gather around the study table of Torah.

"[A]dds Rabbi Soloveitchik, who is descended from influential Talmudists, When I start a shiur [lesson] the door opens and another old man walks in and sits down. My students cal me the Rav. He is older than the Rav. He is the grandfather of the Rav. His name is Reb Chaim Brisker..."


Thank you both, gentlemen! :)