Thanks to this week's Kavvanah reading, The Holy Life by Paula Huston, spiritual autobiographies have been on my mind. An intelligently written Jewish one is homebeis, by Adi Neuman, now of Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem. Both describe the process of trying to live "holier" lives, but there is a difference. For Huston, living a holier life means living a simpler life, trying to strip away as many externals as possible (physical desires can count as externals as well), and becoming more aware of herself and the things around her. For Neuman, it seems to mean living a more productive life, devoting as much time as possible to things that "matter" in the long run. Hence, he is in yeshiva, learning as many different things for as many hours a day as he is physically capable of.
Posted by Avraham at May 21, 2004 03:04 PMI wonder if you could relate this to the discussion in hirhurim, which seems to imply that holiness (or at list yirash shamayaim -- are they the same thing?) is a prerequisite, rather than a consequence, of yeshiva Torah study.
Posted by: Reb Yudel at May 23, 2004 04:13 PM