A Day in the Life of…Rabbi Yonason Rosenblum   

What I do

I text out a lomdish sh’eilah every Thursday night to thousands of subscribers — lamdanim, as we call them — and they have a chance to respond with their answers. I send the answer out after Shabbos.

What that means

I get sh’eilahs from Rav Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg ztz”l’s sefer Mishmeres Chaim — it’s all the sh’eilahs Rav Scheinberg asked his talmidim in yeshivah Thursday nights. They’re fun and exciting, like, “Why isn’t it an aveirah [mei’ikar d’dina] to cook liquid a second time on Shabbos, but it is an aveirah to cook milk and meat together a second time?” Or, “One may not kill another person to save one’s own life, since one doesn’t know his own life is more valuable, but one who finds two people drowning should save the more choshuv person. Why do we say it’s possible to know who’s greater by drowning, but by killing it isn’t?” — this was one of the most popular questions. The answers are deep and lomdish and require a lot of work, lamdanim can quote tens of sources from all over Shas and other seforim to support their answer.

Why this sefer

The maileh is that each of Rav Scheinberg’s sh’eilahs has a clear focus, it’s contained, basically a mini-sugya, unlike open-ended sugyas in Shas where there’s no end and you can come out with little or no clarity. The rosh yeshivah Rav Dovid Leibowitz ztz”l said the very definition of a lamdan is someone who has clarity, because he knows what he knows and knows what he doesn’t know. He has a strong grasp of the Torah he’s learning, even if he doesn’t know the answer to his question, and the first time he learns the sugya, it can be overwhelming and vague, but as he reviews it, he’ll get clarity. These sh’eilahs can actually train you to learn like a lamdan. That’s what Rav Scheinberg wrote in his hakdamah about his talmidim who compiled the sefer: aside from gaining bekiyus in all areas of Torah, learning these sh’eilahs brings you to iyun haTorah, a depth of learning and clarity that give you the ability to reach new heights and become gedolei Torah.

My schedule

Shabbos morning: Pick that week’s sh’eilah.