"And on the Earth You Shall Sleep": "Talmud Torah" and Rabbinic Asceticism

Abstract

As described by the rabbis of antiquity, a life of Torah appears to have been no fun at all: Thus is the way of Torah: Bread with salt you shall eat, and a misorah of water you shall drink, and on the earth you shall sleep, and a life of sorrow you will live, and in the Torah you will labor. And if you do this, 'You will be happy and good [will be] to you' [Ps. 128:2]. You will be happy-in this world; and 'good [will be] to you'-in the world to come.' As if this was not enough, the very next paragraph in Mishnah Avot details the forty-eight things by which Torah is acquired, among which are terror, fear, humility, serving the sages, work, receiving punishments, and reducing one's sleep, conversation, pleasure, and fun.2 Elsewhere, two later rabbis (amoraim) expand on the connection between Torah study and punishment: Alexandrei says, 'There is no man without sufferings, happy is the man whose Torah is suffering.' R. Yehoshua ben Levi says, 'All sufferings that come to a man and take him away from his Torah are sufferings of reproach, but all sufferings that do not take him away from his