Rav Avigdor Miller on How Important Learning Gemara is

Q:
If the Rav is always telling us that we have to subjugate ourselves to the gedolim who have the da’as Torah that comes from learning, why do we ourselves have to bother learning Gemara in depth and become lamdanim?

A:
Listen to me. You know that in order to understand what your doctor is telling you, you must have some minimal level of education. You don’t have to be a big scholar but at least you have to know English. If your doctor is speaking at least a medium level cultured English, you’re going to have to understand what he’s saying.

And therefore when gedolim speak to us we must be able to understand, to appreciate what they’re telling us. And if we are not well-versed in Torah learning it becomes meaningless because we are speaking a different language. The am ha’aretz does not speak the same language as an adom gadol speaks. And that’s a very important yesod.

If you haven’t learned Mesichta Gittin you really have no idea of the necessity of a get. So you’ll say that you know all about it — there’s a civil divorce and there’s a get, a Jewish divorce. No, actually it means nothing to you. For you, a Jewish divorce is just another thing, another ceremony. It’s only when you learn Mesichta Gittin that you internalize that a civil divorce is nothing at all and that without a get she is an eishes ish. She’s just as married as she was when she stood under the chuppah. Even if she hasn’t seen her husband in forty years she’s still an eishes ish and she’s guilty of a capital crime if she goes with another man.

All this, to the am ha’aretz, is very vague. He can appreciate it to some extent but if he hasn’t learned, it’s very vague. But when you learn Mesichta Gittin it hits you between the eyes.

If you didn’t learn Mesichta Yevamos then chalitzah is just a ceremony. It’s like saying Av Harachamim on Shabbos morning – sometimes you skip it. Without Mesichta Yevamos it’s all very vague. There are a lot of people here who did not learn and it’s all a vague thing to them. I remember in my old synagogue, there was a woman whose husband died. This woman was active in the Sisterhood, in the Ladies Auxiliary, and she married her dead husband’s brother. She had children from her first husband and she married her husband’s brother! And – nothing! Nothing! Now, in a decent organization they would have taken her and dumped her in the street. You can’t marry your dead husband’s brother! If you have children from your first husband then it’s like marrying your own brother. Kares! But go and tell this to the amei ha’aretz – they can hear it vaguely, yes – but she’s still in the Sisterhood. This means that they are beheimahs. They don’t talk the language of Torah.

You have to learn – otherwise the language of the Torah is meaningless to you. You must learn – and you must learn Gemara. Not like one man said to me, “We’re not Gemara buffs.” Gemara buffs?! What?! Like, you don’t collect old coins or you don’t collect stamps you also don’t learn Gemara?! Gemara is not a hobby; it’s our life breath. We learn Gemara because that is the air we breathe.

If you don’t learn Gemara you know what you are? You’re an ox! You’re mamish a beheima. That’s what you are without Gemara. And don’t tell me about other things you learn, moral teachings, seforim. If you don’t learn Gemara then you and your family are called beheimahs. And anyone who marries your daughter it says about him in the Gemara, ארור שוכב עם בהמה. If you marry the daughter of an am ha’aretz, it’s like you’re living with a beheima. Their wives and daughters are called the wives and daughters of beheimahs. It’s important to know that. Jews always knew this! You must breathe Gemara. That’s our life!

So how can a gadol talk to you if you’re still in the stable. You’re eating oats and you’re braying and a gadol will knock on the stable door and say, “Listen to this.” So you bray and he talks. It’s totally different languages. I have experience in this. I’ve spoken to people and they don’t even begin to understand what I’m talking about. It’s only when you’re a lamdan, at least in Gemara, that you’re able to communicate with the gedolim and appreciate and understand what they’re telling you