Even if it is obvious that a Torah scholar was
engaged in Torah study all his life shelo lishmah, for ulterior motives,
you must treat him with respect, and certainly may not disparage him. Since he
is learning Torah all the time, you may be sure that many times he does learn lishmah.
As the Sages promised:
“Through learning shelo lishmah one will
eventually come to learning lishmah the rest of his life. What it means
is that if one learns for several hours without interruption, even if he
generally learns shelo lishmah, he cannot help but learn lishmah
at least for a short while.
As result, all the shelo lishmah
learning he did until now will be sanctified and purified through the short
time that he studied lishmah.
Taken from NEFESH HACHAIM Book
Rav Chaim of Volozhin
Translated by Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Finkel.
No comments:
Post a Comment