Q&A: Torah Study.
Torah Study.
Question
Hello, Your Honor,
As someone who greatly appreciates the Rabbi’s thought in all areas, I would like to ask:
How does the Rabbi evaluate Torah study in terms of the intellect involved in it, as compared to the exact sciences?
And in that same context, does the Rabbi sometimes find himself impressed by a novel line of reasoning or a move in a Talmudic passage, the way one can be impressed by a “move” of Einstein or Gödel?
I would be happy to receive his answer.
Best regards.
Answer
For me, physics is much harder than Talmudic analysis. The innovations of Einstein and Newton are far more impressive. But in terms of relevance to life and the integration of different fields, Talmudic analysis is more significant. But all this is a product of my personal inclination. Others may have different evaluations.
Discussion on Answer
Definitely yes. It deals with laws that accompany us in our lives, and with various life phenomena (lies and legal discussions, among other things). It connects law with psychology and philosophy and logic, and from it one gets a different perspective on the everyday life around us. That doesn’t happen in physics. Rabbi Soloveitchik in Halakhic Man touches a bit on this matter, though he focuses mainly on the different way the man of Jewish law looks at reality (that instead of seeing a spring he sees a tevul yom, and so on). I’m talking here about a different aspect. Analysis in Jewish law helps us examine and analyze reality in a different way, and in my opinion a deeper and truer one. Here on the site there are quite a few examples of this (in my opinion).
Hello.
Does Talmudic analysis have more relevance to life than physics?
Or maybe I didn’t understand what you meant by the term relevance.