Scholarship and Piety
Hillel was born with exceptional gifts, and he strove diligently in Torah study. At thirteen he had mastered the Talmud, and at fifteen, the Kabbalistic works of the Arizal. The latter accomplishment was a wonder even then. In addition, he trained himself in self-discipline to the point that his body was mobilised to act only as the Torah prescribes, and even to conform with Kabbalah. Rabbi Hillel's way was to study Chasidic texts for many hours and then pray and meditate for many hours.
Read more about this topic: Hillel Paritcher
Famous quotes containing the words scholarship and, scholarship and/or piety:
“Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The best hopes of any community rest upon that class of its gifted young men who are not encumbered with large possessions.... I now speak of extensive scholarship and ripe culture in science and art.... It is not large possessions, it is large expectations, or rather large hopes, that stimulate the ambition of the young.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Thus one can observe that those who proclaim piety as their goal and purpose usually turn into hypocrites.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)