Why climb the mountain?

Today (not as promised) instead of sharing the pictures of my tiyyul to the southern excavations, let me share with you the words of one of my Talmud teachers, Leah. We had just completed a very difficult sugiyah, and as I mentioned yesterday, had gone around Robin Hood’s barn and returned to where we started from (or whatever the equivalent circumnavigation is in Hebrew — the translation by computer is l’histoveyv ba’asam shel Robin Hud, but I suspect this is literal rather than idiomatic).

“We’ve just climbed a big mountain, and come back down again to the very same place we began,” she said. “And you might ask: Why? What’s your answer?” I said (being a little flip, and thinking of Sir Edmund Hillary), “Because it’s there.” Turns out that was the right answer — that is one of the four reasons she sees. She made a list for us. It’s a very rabbinic practice to give a list like this. In the Talmud, and in the baraitot (the many additional rabbinic sources that are not compiled in the Talmud, yet are often referred to there), and in the contemporary collection Pirkei Avot (Verses of the fathers), lists are common. The characteristics of one who is wise are: a, b, c, and d; what did R. Gehgesunt say about teaching: 1,2,3,4, and 5.

Here’s Leah’s list:

1. Because it’s there. These are opinions and discussions of the rabbis, here they are, we should study them. The mountain is in front of us, we climb it.
2. Because of everything I learn on the trip. I see so much, the view is very interesting, I’m learning things beyond the topic of the sugiya.
3. Because the exercise is good for me. Simply studying talmudic arguments is a healthy practice in and of itself — as climbing the mountain is good for my mental health and my cardiovascular system.
4. Because after I have climbed up and down again, the base of the mountain looks different to me. Even though I seem to be in the same place, my perspective has been changed by taking the journey.

And speaking of the view — I have put at the top and bottom pictures of the view out the third floor windows of Pardes. To get to see this view (not a very lovely one, although it’s pretty at night and at sunset), you must either climb six flights of stairs, or go up in a slightly untrustworthy elevator. And then at the end of the day, you come down again. If you go up the stairs, there are posters all the way up for events that Pardes has offered, and talking points about why Pardes is a great place to study. But in the end, it’s what I learn and experience at the top that makes the world look different when I come down at the end of my day.