There is nothing as damaging to our nation as extremism and overdoing. For example when, for historical and pedagogical reasons, the desire to study Gemara increased in recent centuries, the moral and national gains that were accomplished by channeling the feelings of religion and belief, the great love for all matters holy that come as a result of the increase in Torah and its glory, cannot be denied. However, along with this came many spiritual and physical deficits. Physical weakness for a large portion of those who toiled in Torah, lack of basic scientific knowledge that any himan should know, moral deficiencies that resulted from the intellectual dedication to the details of Halacha to the detriment of the study of emotions and morality in general. These deficiencies are not a result of the study of Gemara but of the extremism that did not all for education in any other area. No science and other types of secular knowledge, no exercise, no broadening of the mind or delving into the morality of the Torah about which many great people have screamed, but no one had the strength to listen.
Rav Kook לנבוכי הדור 13 my free translation
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