Rav Avigdor Miller on Gaining Yiras Shomayim Through Science
Q:
What do you say about having encyclopedias in your home?
A:
It depends what they’re used for. If you use it, let’s say, as a pillow underneath your head…
Some encyclopedias are not beneficial to have in your house.
Now, I want to explain something to you. It’s a subject of limudei chol. I personally think limudei chol are a good thing if it’s done in a kosher way. Because limudi chol leads you to yiras Hashem if it’s done right.
And that’s why limudi chol in general would be very good. You know, in Frankfurt am Main, they taught limudei chol in the gymnasium of the frum Jews. And a man who went there told me once that he learned more yiras Shamayim from his science teacher there than he learned from his rebbe, because the science teacher utilized all the limudim to talk about yiras Shamayim.
It’s possible for a teacher to inject now and then certain thoughts in the minds of talmidim, that’ll give them more benefit than what they heard in the Mesivta, when the rebbe was saying shiurim and halachos. The rebbe is busy saying pilpul shiurim; he wouldn’t bother talking about yiras Shamayim. So all you have is a little mussar seder maybe. But if you have a science teacher in the yeshiva who knows what he’s doing, he can train the boys to yiras Shamayim with the science. It’s possible.
Because there’s so much yiras Shamayim in the world—you know there’s no fact in the world that’s as obvious as the fact that the world was created by a Borei Chochom. Wherever you look, if you’re able to see it, you’ll recognize the yad Hashem on all sides.
Therefore, if you are a responsible person—you’re learned already, you know mussar, you learn halachos—and you want an encyclopedia in order to use it to help other people become frum by the information that you might pick up, go ahead and do it. Otherwise, forget about it. Because you’re not capable of dealing with the apikorsus in these books.
You have to be trained. All the books are full of sheker. All the goyim are full of sheker. Their religions are sheker. Their science is sheker. Take it from me. Absolutely all sheker! But many things there, if you’re looking for chochmah by the umos ha’olam you can find some. יש חכמה באומות העולם – There is chochma in the umos ha’olam. It doesn’t mean everything is chochmah. There’s shtus too, mountains of shtus, but there’s some chochmah here and there.
If you’re capable of distinguishing, then it’s alright. But most people shouldn’t bother bringing any other books in their houses because they’re not capable. And children will read them and it’ll make a wrong impression on them.
And so it’s only if you’re capable. And that’s why I say it depends for whom. Not for everybody. For capable people, yes.
A man once brought me some books to show me. So I said, “Give them to me.” He shouldn’t have them. I should have them. So I put them in my beis hakiseh. I keep them there. I get benefit out of them; but he wouldn’t get any benefit from them. So I said, “Give it to me and I’ll use them.”
October 1996
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