Q&A: What Is Defined as Torah Study
What Is Defined as Torah Study
Question
Hello Rabbi,
If I study physics in order to try to understand the parameters of electricity on the Sabbath, or if I study language in order to understand the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) better, is that defined as “Torah study”? The practical implications would be regarding the blessing over Torah study beforehand, fulfilling one’s obligation of setting fixed times for Torah study, studying these subjects at the expense of yeshiva study in the hesder track, and so on. Is this perhaps preparation for a commandment?
And what about someone who studies these subjects not necessarily for the sake of Torah study, but knows that it could help him in learning later on?
Conversely, is studying passages from the Talmud that discuss medical advice which many today would say is factually incorrect considered “Torah study”?
Of course, if you’ve already addressed this question, it’s enough to send a link, and there’s no need to answer again (I didn’t find anything on the site in a quick search, but I may very well have missed it).
Thank you
Answer
In my humble opinion, these are preparations for a commandment and not Torah study. However, if you study them in order to know, that would be Torah study in the person (and not in the object studied). Still, with regard to a discussion in a religious court where part of the issue revolves around clarifying the facts of reality, the Sages do define that as Torah study—but perhaps that is only in the context of a religious court. And it may be that this is defined that way only where you have a concrete problem before you and you are dealing with it (“a slaughtered ox before you”), and not when you are engaged in another theoretical field as general preparation for problems that may arise in the future. Along these lines, several halakhic decisors distinguished regarding autopsies between cases done for general medical study and cases involving a specific medical need that exists right now.
Discussion on Answer
In my opinion, definitely not.
One should remember that facts in general—even medical remedies that do work—are not Torah, just like presumptions are not Torah (for example, “a person does not repay before the due date,” and the like). But usually there is a halakhic lesson involved—for example, that a presumption can extract money, or the difference between a boil that can be healed and a burn that cannot be healed—and that is Torah regardless of the fact itself and whether or not it is correct.
And if facts aren’t Torah, then one would have to say that studying Torah also isn’t Torah study 🙂
With the blessing of “inside out on top of inside out,”
Bra’aleh from the cities of the plain
What is meant by “Torah study in the person and not in the object studied”? And does that require the blessing over Torah study?
By logic, it seems to me not. In my opinion, even the aggadic literature of the Sages does not justify the blessing over Torah study. I think this was already discussed on the site; it’s worth searching.
Is it permitted to study Torah in the person without wearing a kippah?
A kippah is not an obligation at all, only a custom. The custom is to wear a kippah while studying as well.
https://ph.yhb.org.il/category/%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%A7%D7%95%D7%98%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%90/08-%D7%9B%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%94/
I see that an answer is missing here to another part of the question: are all the pages in the Talmud that contain scientific or medical information that is plainly mistaken still considered “Torah study” simply by virtue of their having been fixed in the canon?