W riting an article in a publication like this can be exhilarating or humbling depending on the feedback. My article about the spiritual danger of business trips several weeks ago spawned both emotions.
On one hand the sheer volume of discussion it provoked demonstrates that the topic was ripe for attention. On the other hand the feedback was a bit humbling because in suggesting various approaches to ameliorating the challenge I had somehow missed the biggest one of all. My blunder was pointed out to me in a soft but straightforward fashion by the indefatigable dynamo and mezakeh es harabim Rabbi Dovid Newman.
By now Reb Dovid is a household name having been featured on the cover of this magazine for his wildly successful V’Haarev Na program which encourages mesivta bochurim to “own” a masechta through multiple chazaros. Reb Dovid told me — and he is absolutely right — that the true antidote for the traveler is the panacea Hashem prescribed: “Barasi yetzer hara barasi Torah tavlin.” The Torah provides protection and deliverance from the yetzer hara. If baalei batim would “lig in lernen ” they would be protected from the yetzer hara’s snares.
Of course I knew this basic principle. So why had it not crossed my mind? Sadly because it did not seem realistic. Because even if a baal mishpachah is dedicated to his daily learning say to his daf how “areingetun” can he really be? The truly motivated may be but for many learning the daf or going to a shiur is a passive experience. A man who is a boss at work comes home fatigued and feels small as he sits at a shiur. How can we expect him to have a geshmak?
