העורך Editor

Rabbi Avigdor Miller: Get to Know Tanach!

Here’s the excerpt:

What we’re seeing now is that one of the first prefaces to love Hashem is to become an אוֹהֵב עַמּוֹ יִשְׂרָאֵל because anything less than that will be an obstacle to the great perfection of ahavas Hashem. We have to love His people! And not just love — we have to learn how to love our nation with an intense and fiery love.

Now, I won’t mislead you and tell you it’s easy. It’s a job, a big job. And you won’t do it by just coming here and listening to me drone on about it. A little bit it’ll help — it helps me when I speak about it, no question. I’ll tell you something, a secret. When I speak to you, I wouldn’t waste my time just for you alone. It’s in the hope that I’m hearing it as well. Agav urcha, I’m letting you listen in, but I’m listening too, and hopefully something rubs off on me. But this is too important of a subject to rely on something rubbing off. We have to know that it is a function that we’re mechuyav to work on.

Love Jewish History

So, first of all, you have to learn how to love your people. Do you love your history? Do you love the old generations? After all, Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves them. רַק בַּאֲבֹתֶיךָ חָשַׁק ה׳ לְאַהֲבָה אוֹתָם – He loves your fathers with an eternal love! And so even for those who departed already, they’re still Amo Yisroel, and you should keep in mind that you love them. You should have a love for Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov. You should love the Imahos. You should love the Shevatim. You can love Moshe Rabbeinu too. Did you ever think of loving Moshe Rabbeinu? Love all the great men of our nation’s history.

You have to know the past, however. Do you know anything about Dovid Hamelech? Anything about Shlomo Hamelech? Do you know anything about Chizkiyah Hamelech or about Yoshiyah Hamelech? You have to know things about them. You can’t love something you don’t know, the Rambam says. You love according to what you know.

That’s why everyone should be ambitious to know Tanach. Without knowing Tanach, you’re missing one of the fundamentals of Torah perfection; you don’t know about your people.

Tannaim and Amoraim

Not only Tanach; you should be ambitious to know all of our great men. Do you know who Rav Huna is? Many Jews you’ll ask them so they look befuddled. “Rav Huna?” He’s scratching his head. He doesn’t know. “Is he a rav in my neighborhood?”

How can he be a candidate to be an oheiv Yisroel? You have to know the whole Klal Yisroel in order to begin loving them.

Learn to love the Tana’im. You have to know their names and love them. Not only to know their greatness. Not only to be proud of them but to love them intensely. When you learn, let’s say, a machlokes Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehoshua, love these great men. You immerse yourself in their words. You think of their arguments. Ah! You can argue with them on this side. You can argue with them on this side. You agree with both of them. And even if the Gemara makes the maskanah it doesn’t mean that one is rejected. We follow one, but we love both of them intensely.

Read the rest, of course…