Just Plane Foolish

The other day I told my class a story which included the mention of TWA. One of my students asked me what TWA was. I was taken aback. However, since TWA ceased to exist in 2001, he was eight years old the last time that a TWA-branded jet flew. While researching this article I came across Eastern Airlines. I had no recollection of them. They went bankrupt in 1991. I was definitely older than eight when they last flew! Is there really a connection between Eastern Airlines and the daf? I’m going to try to wing it. I hope you like my approach.

The Gemara in Makos offers various explanations of the pasuk in Koheles (5:9) “Umi oheiv behamon lo tevuah.” Rav Ashi offered the following “Whoever loves to learn in a group will merit to acquire Torah.” Rebbe Yosi B’ Rebbe Chanina goes even further and states “Sages who learn alone deserve a punishment by the sword.” The Maharsha says that if you meet an individual who says he consistently learns Torah in a group, yet appears to be an ignoramus, you know that he is a liar. The Torah guarantees that an individual can reach new planes of Torah understanding if he learns Torah in a group. His claim that he is a part of Torah study group must have been concocted out of thin air.

Even if we can understand why group learning is better, why does the Gemara practically state that it is a sin to learn alone? What is the basis for this? The Maharsha explains that Torah study is not like any other area of human knowledge. It has deep sevaros and secrets. These can only be properly understood by an animated give-and-take with other individuals. One who studies alone is equating Torah knowledge to the study of aviation. He is viewing the Torah as a simple textbook that one can read alone and cram for the Regents. This is a disgrace of Torah and can make one liable for punishment.

This is only true if one willfully forgoes a Torah chaburah that is fitting for him and instead learns alone. One who is in a place or situation where he cannot join a chaburah is not disgracing the Torah by learning alone. Just the opposite, he is showing heroic courage by overcoming the evil inclination against the study of Torah and learning by himself. It is often much more difficult to learn alone and one who nevertheless does, deserves great reward. Rav Yaakov Emden proves that someone who cannot join a chaburah should nevertheless learn by himself from an explicit Mishnah in Pirkei Avos (3:2) “And from where do we know that someone who learns alone that Hashem gives him reward . . .” It is evident that if you receive reward for an action, then it must be proper.

The Gemara makes one more statement about one who learns alone, he will become foolish. This can be best explained by the following anecdote:

Eastern Airlines Flight 885 took off from Miami International Airport at 08:56 on May 5, 1980. They were flying a three engine Lockheed Tri-Star. The flight was to Nassau International Airport in the Bahamas. They were carrying 162 passengers and 10 crew members. At 09:15, during an ascent through 15,000 feet, an indicator warning light went on indicating problems with Tri-Star’s #2 engine. This engine then flamed out. A decision had to be made—should they continue on to Nassau which was only 54 miles away, or return to Miami which was 110 miles away? The captain elected to return to Miami to land. This was due to the poor weather conditions in Nassau. It would have taken more time to land in Nassau than to land in Miami. (In response to a lawsuit, this decision was proven to be the correct one in a flight simulator.)

En route back to Miami, warning lights for engines 1 and 3 illuminated. At 09:28, at an altitude of 16,000 feet, engine 3 flamed out. At 09:33, engine 1 flamed out. While the flight crew attempted to restart engine 2, cabin lights went off and flight deck instruments stopped working. The aircraft descended without power from about 13,000 feet to about 4,000 feet, at which point the crew successfully restarted engine 2 and executed a landing at Miami. None of the 172 passengers and crew aboard was injured in the incident.

The odds of an engine failing in mid-flight in this particular plane were estimated at one in a thousand. The odds of two engines failing simultaneously are one in a million. The odds of all three engines failing simultaneously are one in a billion. Was this an extremely rare and bizarre accident? The NTSB concluded otherwise. The same two mechanics serviced all three engines. They failed to seal the oil tanks properly with “o-rings” and all the engine oil leaked out. They made the same error three times. In fact, internal documents later showed that they made the same mistake numerous times before.

When one learns Torah by himself he is prone to make mistakes. He can misunderstand one concept and then continually make the same error over and over again. With a chaburah, the mistake can be realized and corrected. The Gemara is saying that learning alone is plane foolish. Occasionally we see this in my daf yomi chaburah. Either I or any other participant has a preconceived notion about a certain topic. It is only through the group discussion that our mistaken view is corrected. It is clear from the Gemara, that much importance is placed on group learning. Therefore, one should try his utmost to join a Torah chaburah to be able to soar to new heights in Torah.