Q&A: Analytical Talmudic Learning in Study and in Life
Analytical Talmudic Learning in Study and in Life
Question
Hello, recently I got hold of the book Ateret Tzvi by the head of the Grodna yeshiva, Rabbi Tzvi Drabkin. From a superficial look, the analytical learning in the book seems very developed and very straightforward. But I’ve heard people quote him on matters of outlook and ideology that seemed a bit puzzling to me. So first of all I wanted to ask whether the Rabbi knows this rabbi and his style of learning, and in addition I wanted to ask how such a thing happens—that in learning a person develops a straight mind, but in reality not so—or perhaps I’m mistaken, and even in learning he isn’t straight, and the two things really have to go together.
Answer
My son studied with him in Grodna. I heard him once or twice, and he definitely seemed good. There is no connection whatsoever between a person’s level in analytical Talmudic learning and his level in thought/worldview. Most Haredi analytical scholars talk nonsense in those areas.
Discussion on Answer
Yes. They don’t really think in matters of worldview, because in their opinion it is forbidden to think there. They defend positions that were fixed in advance. Beyond that, they also aren’t skilled in these subjects, because they haven’t engaged with them.
In Rabbi Shlomo Hoffman’s book, On Awareness and Contemplation, he recounts that Rabbi Shach told him that there are kollel scholars who are great Torah scholars who speak with him “in learning,” and he really enjoys their sharpness and their analytical ability, but when they begin speaking about matters of worldview, politics, and the psyche, they talk nonsense. He cited the Vilna Gaon (in his commentary on Proverbs?) as saying that these are different kinds of intelligence that require development, and a person can be talented in one area and very weak in another.
And there is the well-known tale of that rooster who saw ducks sailing across the sea gracefully and easily, and wondered: since they have wings, why is their flying so clumsy and difficult? And to this very day, one chick tells another the matter of the duck and resolves it with two legal distinctions.
The story told here about Rabbi Shach is very amusing. Hard to believe how thickly the butter is spread on that person’s head.
Festival greetings,
Maybe the Rabbi has an answer to the question of how it happens that intelligent analytical scholars talk nonsense?