Reply To: Bein Hazmanim important?

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bobbys cow
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Anyone who doesn’t understand the need for bein hazmanim falls into one of 2 categories:

1) People who, because of their gender or upbringing, never attended a full time post high school yeshiva, and therefore don’t understand that learning torah actually tires you out emotionally and saps your strength of will to continue to push to do the right thing. If people wouldn’t have bein hazmanim, many of them wouldn’t only “burn out” in terms of learning, but they may also even “burn out in other matters of ruchniyus, ch”v. A person with his priorities straight, in most cases, should be able to push himself to learn the whole seder, every seder, for an entire zman, but still will at some point reach the point of diminishing returns, where more time spent learning actually detracts from his ability to keep learning and doing mitzvos. That is where bein hazmanim comes in, and the boy will have time to recharge his drive to learn and still learn a few hours a day while “on vacation.” (vacation from yeshiva, not from mitzvos. helping at home is very important).

2) People who, because of their unusual and special kochos, actually don’t need bein hazmanim. These people are very rare, and they should take advantage of their time during bein hazmanim to learn as much as possible, possibly topics that they don’t get the opportunity to learn during the zman. They should definitely not be wasting their time in the YWN coffee room. (They also should help out at home as much as their parents want them to. It is good for their middos, good for their marriages IY”H, and also the right thing to do. But when they aren’t busy with Kibbud Av Vaeim and Yom Tov preparations…)

The only people I didn’t cover, except those who love bein hazmanim the way it is, are those who are full time learners who are ALMOST in category 2), but not fully there. Those people might say that bein hazmanim is too long, and for themselves, they are right. But they should put aside more time than average during bein hazmanim to learn, and, more importantly, they should realize that they are special and that other people do actually need all the time they get. (Since they understand the need for some break, they should be able to comprehend how some people need the a little more time than themselves).