A few months ago, a collector from Israel went around with the attached tzedakah card. The card described an impoverished family whose children were sleeping on the floor. It then explained that the father learns Torah all day, resulting in his son being forced to leave Israel to raise funds for the family.

The question is uncomfortable: Does this describe a deep man of faith who has devoted himself completely to Torah, or a father who has abandoned his family and responsibilities, including those detailed in his kesubah?

That is one of the fundamental questions that Rafael Dembovsky attempts to address in Between Torah and Derech Eretz: A Hashkafic and Halachic Analysis of the Torah im Derech Eretz and Torah Only Viewpoints (Mosaica Press).

Few questions in contemporary Orthodox Jewish life are as consequential, or as contentious, as the proper relationship between Torah study and engagement with the wider world. Should a Jew devote himself as fully as possible to Torah and minimize involvement with secular society? Or should Torah be combined with education, a profession, and meaningful participation in the broader world?

While this is a complicated question with profound implications, it is not new. As Dembovsky demonstrates, its roots go back to the Talmud.

In Berakhot 35b, the Gemara recounts the famous dispute between Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai. The Gemara discusses the apparent contradiction between “This book of Torah shall not depart from your mouth” (Joshua 1:8) and “You shall gather in your grain” (Deuteronomy 11:14).

Rabbi Yishmael understands these verses as establishing a model in which a person combines Torah study with a worldly occupation. Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai takes a more radical position: If a person spends his time plowing, sowing, and harvesting, what will happen to his Torah? If the Jewish people do God’s will, he argues, others can perform their work; if they do not, they will have to do it themselves.

The Gemara then records that many followed Rabbi Yishmael’s approach and succeeded, while those who followed Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai’s approach did not succeed. That would seemingly settle the debate. But as anyone who has learned a few chapters of Talmud knows, it is rarely that simple.

One of the book’s central strengths is its recognition that this is not merely a debate about whether someone should go to college and work for a living or remain in yeshiva and allow others to provide for him.........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)