{"id":98011,"date":"2022-11-19T21:59:34","date_gmt":"2022-11-19T19:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/?p=98011"},"modified":"2022-11-19T21:59:34","modified_gmt":"2022-11-19T19:59:34","slug":"no-laughing-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/no-laughing-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"No Laughing Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>No Laughing Matter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was once passing by the yeshiva in Lyon, when I heard raucous laughter coming from the windows of the Beit Hamidrash. Baffled and very bothered, I entered the study hall. To my utter surprise, I was met by the sight of a Jewish man, who had the Torah students in stitches with his litany of laughs. He was treating them to an assortment of jokes and riddles. Those in his proximity were riveted to his witticisms and chortled with delight.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, this was most disturbing to the rest of the students. \u201cIf you can\u2019t beat them, join them,\u201d they felt. Since they could not focus on their studies anyway, they joined the session of scoffers.<\/p>\n<p>I could not remain silent in the face of such brazen shame of Torah, as well as <em>bitul <\/em>Torah<em>.<\/em> I turned to the students and told them that the times of Torah study must be consecrated for Torah study alone, and not <em>chalilah<\/em>, for mockery and jesting. I added, to lend credence to my words, the words of the Gemara (<em>Avodah Zarah<\/em> 2b) which says that in the future, Hashem will take a Sefer Torah and announce that whoever was involved in its study should come and receive his reward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou will surely be among those who will claim reward for the many hours spent in Torah study each day,\u201d I said. \u201cBut when Hashem will investigate whether or not you were actually engrossed in your studies, He will take note of what just went on here a few minutes ago. \u2018Is this your definition of Torah study?\u2019 He will ask. \u2018Jokes and laughter which disturb those who wish to learn?!\u2019<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cYou should know that even if you do teshuvah for your own bitul Torah, and truly improve in this area, you can never repair the bitul Torah of others which you are responsible for. On the great Day of Judgment, you will hang your heads in shame, sincerely regretting your misdeeds.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>As I left the Beit Hamidrash, there was a feeling of remorse in the air. The students truly regretted their wrongdoings and returned to their studies with renewed vigor.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No Laughing Matter I was once passing by the yeshiva in Lyon, when I heard raucous laughter coming from the windows of the Beit Hamidrash. Baffled and very bothered, I entered the study hall. To my utter surprise, I was met by the sight of a Jewish man, who had the Torah students in stitches [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1052],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bitul-torah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rdpinto.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}