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Welcome to the download area of the Frum Toronto website, which we're currently running as a trial exercise. We're making our latest evening lecture series available online in the form of downloadable MP3 files.

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"There are four types among those who go to the study hall. One who goes but does not do receives reward for the going. One who does but does not go receives reward for the doing. One who goes and does is pious. One who does not go and does not do is wicked."

This week's mishna contrasts people in regards to study hall attendance. Before we begin, Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch points out that in the time of the Mishna the Oral Tradition had not yet been committed to writing. (The Mishna in its present form was formalized only at the end of this period by Rabbi Judah the Prince, c. 200 C.E.) Thus, the Torah was typically studied publicly and orally, at first from teacher to student and then discussed among the students. This in itself increased the dynamic, engaging nature of Torah study, contributing to its becoming the living wisdom it is today. Conversely, the possibility of any sort of advanced level of study in private was severely limited. Thus, our mishna views one who does not attend a place of study as one who has very little serious involvement in Torah study - beyond what he has been taught already and what he can deduce single-handedly.

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