A Personal Relationship with Avoda vs Chochmas Yavan

A Personal Relationship with Avoda vs Chochmas Yavan

We all want our life to be a kli (vessel) for avodas Hashem. Yet we face a giant hurdle with making this desire a reality.

How we approach people vs how we approach Gemara

When we form an initial assumption about someone, it often stays with us for life. This is in contrast to how we approach learning gemara, where we begin with an assumption and continuously dig deeper with a goal to change our understanding. 

Yet, when it comes to social interactions, we don’t follow this process of re-evaluation! We will discover in this vaad how to apply the Torah method of learning to experiencing others lives and even our own lives.

Our life is worthless in our eyes

When it comes to our life, we unfortunately adopt the mindset that our entire life is defined by as much as we are actualizing the Torah in our life. This develops into a life which has no intrinsic meaning, as it exists solely as a background for the Torah to express itself. We can now understand the problem with the biographies of the gedolim that are frequently published: they rarely portray these figures as having an actual life. Instead, we are only shown how Torah and mitzvos emerged through their lives. When their personal lives are mentioned at all, it is often framed as a series of nisyonos (challenges) they overcame. These biographies convey the message that life itself is meaningless, or worse, that it is a mere test to be overcome.

Our life encompasses the entire Torah

The truth is that life’s meaningfulness is that at every stage in life that we are in, we have a relationship to all of the good and bad of Torah:

“I am a ganav and I am a holy person.”

“I am a murderer and I am connected to Hashem.”

“I am an adulterer and I have the great mayla (virtue) of truth.”

“It is all by me!”

This is an emunah we need to have because this is what Hashem wants us to see in our life! 

The application of this concept is that we take a principle from Torah and apply it to our own lives. For example, we might say, ‘I have the quality of kedusha (holiness)…but where is it manifested?’ This prompts us to reflect on our lives and search for where this kedusha exists. As we do this, our lives become more interesting and meaningful because we begin to uncover the unique and personal way we manifest the virtue of kedusha of the Torah.

Real life applications of this concept

Here are two personal examples of how I applied this method in my day-to-day life:

One night, I couldn’t sleep because I had recently read something in a biology book that revealed to me that I was a murderer! What happened was that while standing by R’ Yonasan’s ma’amar (discourse), a man vying for space pushed me hard, and I instinctively pushed him back even harder. After reading the biology book I reflected on the incident and realized that even though the man I pushed seemed fine, the force and nature of my push could have been enough to seriously harm or even kill him.

I am a kadosh elyon (holy and lofty individual). I do not live exclusively in my sensual life, I have another part of myself which transcends this. For example, next door to my office, construction was underway on the neighboring property with the relentless noise of a jackhammer. I simply could not take a nap due to the noise! I brought earplugs, hoping to block out the sound and get some rest, but I still couldn’t fall asleep. Then, I reframed my perspective. I thought to myself: for my neighbor, every boom boom of the jackhammer is music to his ears, because he is building something which will bring in money for himself. Why not share in his joy? If he is happy, I can be happy for him too. “I am happy because my neighbor is happy!” This shift in mindset worked, and I was able to sleep through the noise! This is a kadosh elyon, and makes for what I call “an interesting life!” 

This is the difference between Chochmas Yavan and Chochmas HaTorah

This is “building the person” wherein we are not striving to attain something which is beyond us, but rather we reveal that the highest and lowest levels of ruchniyus are actually a part of us and our life. This is the big difference between Chochmas Yavan (Greek Wisdom) and Chochmas HaTorah. We build in a way that manifests in our experience. While Chochmas Yavan is busy giving lofty concepts as goals that will never be reached.

A personal example of Chochmas HaTorah vs. Western Values

Here is a personal example where this distinction between Chochmas HaTorah and Western Values i.e. Chochmas Yavan reared its head for me: 

My daughter works as a manager for a kidney donor transplant service, and they recently held a Shabbaton. During the event, there was a panel of leaders, including a government ethics spokesperson who stated that the ultimate form of giving should be altruistic. However, others pointed out a dilemma: R’ Heber emphasized that one should prioritize giving to a fellow Jew.

I could not hold myself back and I raised my hand to share my perspective: ‘Altruism,’ I explained, ‘is a goyish concept. In Judaism, we don’t focus on abstract altruism; we focus on chesed—acts of kindness. When we do chesed, it brings tangible benefits, such as the joy of seeing a smile in return. Only in the case of chesed shel emes—kindness shown to the deceased—do we truly give without expecting anything back. Every other form of chesed personally and uniquely affects and expresses itself in our lives.’

Altruism, as the government ethics spokesperson described, is detached from human experience. In their ideal, a computer would decide where the kidney goes, completely removing personal connection or personal humanity from the equation. This abstractness is what the Non-Jews keep returning to in their weltanschauung. We however specifically deal with the nature of humanity, wherein the Torah definition as we described above, allows us to find the mayla’s, such as that of chesed, within ourselves throughout our personal life. 

Now we understand the Torah’s dictum in Devarim Chapter 30, verse 14:

כִּֽי־קָר֥וֹב אֵלֶ֛יךָ הַדָּבָ֖ר מְאֹ֑ד בְּפִ֥יךָ וּבִֽלְבָבְךָ֖ לַעֲשֹׂתֽוֹ

“No, the thing is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to observe it.”

The Torah is telling us that it is so close to us because all the maylos of the Torah speak to our life, not as a future utopia that after we achieve all the goals we will become a great Torah personality…but rather we are a Torah personality in the present! 

The constant avoda of uncovering the maylos within ourselves

This idea requires real effort—to reveal that our lives are inherently filled with Torah content. Consider the phrase often quoted: ‘Reach for the stars, and at least you’ll land on the moon.’ This reflects a goyish outlook, where even the entirety of one’s effort is framed as a failure for not fully achieving the goal. The person’s value is tied to falling short of their ideal. 

In contrast, the Torah approach is entirely different. We say, ‘Rav Boruch Ber aspired to be like Rebbi Akiva Eiger, and in doing so, he revealed that he already embodied aspects of Rebbi Akiva Eiger in his own unique and personal way.’ It wasn’t about “reaching there” in some external sense; rather, it was about discovering and growing that greatness within himself. This is the point which required constant effort from Rav Boruch Ber, continuously working to nurture and expand his inner Rebbi Akiva Eiger.

This is a fascinating work in Torah and this is the big disagreement we have with Chochmas Yavan. Unfortunately, the Greek approach has influenced our outlook. 

The uniqueness of our life is where the maylos emerge

While we can appreciate the intentions of the author of Making of a Gadol in highlighting the challenges faced by gedolim, it’s essential to recognize that the meaning of our lives is not defined by the challenges we encounter. Rather, it is shaped by the maylos—the unique qualities and strengths—that emerge through our personal experiences.

As discussed earlier, true meaning lies in uncovering how aspects of greatness, like being a kadosh elyon, manifest uniquely within our own lives. Rav Boruch Ber discovered within himself the greatness of Rebbi Akiva Eiger in his own distinct way, reflecting a deeply personal expression of that ideal. Indeed, the true uniqueness of each person’s life is found in the place where the maylos are emerging in a unique and personal way!

An example of this concept can be seen with R’ Yeruchom where he said in regards to the time when the Altar from Kelm left a room when he saw money on the table because of the issur yichud (sin of being alone with someone, or in this case, something else) to avoid stealing it. That had he himself been there, he would have stolen the money!

The idea being that the Altar from Kelm understood that while he would never actually steal money from someone, if he was alone with someone else’s money he would become interested in the money which may have led him to think, count, organize, and explore the money, and this would be geneiva (theft) by him. R’ Yeruchom was saying that if he himself had been there, he himself would certainly have done this type of geneiva.

We need to educate ourselves to uncover personal maylos

That is an example of finding a negative, personal lacking. Unfortunately we don’t know how to do this for the negative or the positive, so we need education on it. We need to take maylos HaTorah in the profoundly personal and practical approach we outlined above, and superimpose them one at a time on ourselves and others. This will reveal that our initial assumptions about ourselves and about them were superficial! This is educating ourselves, where Torah and reality merge together as the reality becomes interesting through the eyes of Torah. Our life expresses kedusha, dveykus, perishus, etc.

Practically speaking, our work is to choose a mayla to dig into and find where we see it in our lives. It takes work to understand what each of the maylos of Torah mean on a deep level, only then will we find it in our life, sometimes in the most unexpected of places!

An example from emes (truth and integrity)

Here’s a personal example of how the noble abstract ideals of Chochmas Yavan when applied to practical life, have negative results, whereas Chochmas HaTorah educates towards positive growth: 

Someone once approached me and shared that they have a strong inclination toward emes and wanted guidance on how to channel it. Chochmas Yavan would dictate, “Before doing anything, focus entirely on determining what is the absolute emes, and then proceed.” While this may sound noble, it would ultimately suffocate a person. In contrast, Chochmas HaTorah recognizes that if you are naturally inclined toward emes, you can afford to take risks—even risks that might initially lead to sheker (falsehood). Why? Because your intrinsic connection to emes will compel you to conduct an honest cheshbon (self-reckoning). You will catch your errors, correct your course, and retain the authentic truths you uncover. However, this approach could be dangerous if a person does not have a strong relationship with emes. They might rationalize their mistakes and never return to the path of truth.

Again, in this case Chochmas Yavan would emphasize discovering truth through rigorous study and prolonged contemplation before taking action. But this can lead to paralysis through fear of making a wrong move or corruption by becoming entangled in a false understanding. Whereas Chochmas HaTorah flips this approach: “Take action and take risks!” The strong inclination to emes will ensure that this person will grow through trial and error!

In conclusion

In conclusion, Chochmas Yavan through its intellectual clarity can indeed successfully create; striving, excellence, pressure, grit, etc. i.e. things which make us work without tapping into anything by us personally. But it doesn’t build us because it is not speaking to us personally, but rather to an external goal which we are reaching for. Whereas Chochmas HaTorah has a depth which can be revealed in our life to build us.