The Value of Sitting

Although it is hard to find common ground with the Muslim world these days when it comes to Israel, but there is one thing that is somewhat similar. An Arab child who wants to learn Islam goes to a Madrassa. A Jewish one who wants to learn goes to a Beis Midrash, a house of study.  Not surprisingly, the Arab word madrassa comes from the Hebrew word midrash which means to look deeper, to seek and inquire. But that is where the similarity ends.  The Jews didn’t adopt the term Beis Midrash to describe the institution where children go to study like the Muslims did; rather, Jewish children go to yeshiva.  

 The root of the word yeshiva means to sit, yoshev.  If I were to describe the essence of what goes on at a yeshiva, I wouldn’t say it is to sit. That may be the position we adopt when we study, but so too do people in an office. And in fact, it used to be the custom that out of respect for learning, a person stood when he learned until the generation became spiritually weaker and allowed for sitting. This further strengthens the question of why Jews adopted this term to describe our educational system. 

The problem is with our definition of the word to yoshev.  Granted, it can mean to sit, but there is a deeper understanding that is highlighted by Rashi.  It says in this weeks parsha that after a woman gives birth, she needs ‘to sit in her blood of purity for 33 days’. Lest we take a simplistic and unrefined understanding of the verse which sounds like she needs to sit in actual blood, Rashi explains that sitting is not a physical act but a description of her state of being- she is not moving forward, she is holding herself back from going to certain places of high level holiness temporarily. 

With this is mind the world of yeshivas starts to make sense. The idea of Yeshiva is to hold back and get to know yourself and morality first before you move forward.  Don’t run into the world without an idea of how to act ethically in the world. That is the other idea of Yeshiva- it is a settlement, a yishuv. It teaches a person the proper character traits needed in order to settle the world.  We live in a world that is in a tremendous rush; things are fast paced and patience is a commodity.  When moving at high speeds, the possibility of an accident becomes all the greater.  At the very least, to minimize our chances of a spiritual accident, a little time to hold back and gather our moral bearings is not a bad idea.