Q&A: Does Torah protect and save?
Does Torah protect and save?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
It is known to us that the Sages have no authority regarding facts, only in matters of Jewish law. So the question is this: regarding the idea that Torah protects and saves — on the one hand, this is a factual matter (that is, a claim that there is a direct connection between Torah study and physical reality), and therefore the Sages would seemingly have no authority to determine such a thing. But on the other hand, there is no way to measure it, and the only ones who talk about it are the Sages!
So in such a case, is there room to turn to sources on a factual matter? Do the Sages have authority to determine something like this?
Thanks in advance!
Answer
“Torah protects and saves” is interpreted incorrectly nowadays. The Sages did not write that Torah study protects a person and exempts him from military service, of course. That is just a stupid invention. But regarding your actual question, this is indeed a factual claim, and in my opinion the Sages had no way of knowing whether it is true or not. Therefore, in my view, what they say on this matter is not binding. True, there is no way to measure it — but the Sages had no such way either.
By the way, with statements like these I always wonder whether the Sages themselves meant them literally, or whether this was just a way to encourage people to study and to elevate the status of those who study. That was their style in quite a few areas. For example, they can say about something that it is a law given to Moses at Sinai, when in fact it is only a rabbinic law, just in order to reinforce it. They say that everything that an outstanding student will one day innovate was already said to Moses at Sinai, even though it is pretty clear that this is not true. So there, in my estimation, their intention is normative — it should be treated as though it was given at Sinai — and not factual-historical.