EXOD910 … beyond your learning, act. Pirkei Avot, Perek VI mishnah 5. In the first perek (mishnah 17), , "Not interpretation is the main thing, but doing." And the Talmud tells: When R. Tarfon and the elders were met in session… in Lydda, this question was asked before them, "Is learning greater, or proper action?"… Ultimately all responded, "Learning is greater, because it leads to proper action" (T.B. Kiddushin 40b). Without that basic tenet, we might be puzzled at this Talmudic passage: "Let a man never say, I will learn so that I will be called a wise man; I will study, that I may be called a rabbi; I will study further that I may become an elder and hold a chair in the Academy. Rather, study out of love…" (T.B. Nedarim 62a) If learning were an end in itself, why not seek honor and recognition for it? But in the Divine wisdom that informs our faith, study must never be an end in itself; it must lead on to action; the mitzvoth must be done. Otherwise, learning becomes a stagnant dead end: "Whoever studies Torah with no intention of acting accordingly, it was better that he had never been born, had never emerged into the world" (T.J. Berakoth i 2, Shabbath i 2; Midrash Rabbah, Leviticus xxxv 6). As Kallah Rabbathi puts it, do not say, "Here am I studying; then where is my greatness?" Go on beyond studying. The Torah must unfold in our lives in concrete deeds, not in a thirty-volume dissertation on ethics and philosophy. Help the poor, visit the sick, keep the Sabbath properly, observe kashruth precisely, etc. So will you go beyond your studies, to a more advanced level. Moreover, let your deeds run ahead of your understanding. Do not say, "I have not yet learned everything about this particular mitzvah; I am not ready to observe it." In obedience to the Torah we are expected to do more, fulfill more than we can comprehend. This was the clear, natural response of the pristine soul of our people as they stood at Sinai, when they replied as one, "All that Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will listen" [this verse]: they were ready to obey at once; their understanding would have to catch up later. This remains the way of the pious Jew in serving his Maker.