Q&A: Studying Talmud
Studying Talmud
Question
Hello Rabbi, I study in a yeshiva.
We study Talmud most of the day, and I wanted to ask why Talmud was chosen to be the main focus of Torah study, rather than studying more practical Jewish law.
Answer
First, the Talmud is very practical Jewish law. You assume that studying Jewish law means studying the Mishnah Berurah or something like that, but that is not correct. In order to issue a halakhic ruling, one has to understand the methods of learning and ruling, and you cannot acquire that from studying the Mishnah Berurah. Second, you assume that the goal of study is to know what to do, but that is not so. The goal of study is the study itself.
Discussion on Answer
Doing that in the Torah itself seems to me utterly lacking in meaning and value. The Torah has no single unequivocal meaning, and everyone says this or that homiletic idea. You learn nothing from it. I have already written about this at great length.
The Talmud is the way we understand the halakhic part of the Torah. Jewish law is the product of Talmudic analysis, after reaching conclusions. Matters that have no practical significance are worth exactly as much as matters that do have practical significance, because the purpose of study is not to know what to do, but to know God’s will and cleave to Him.
The Talmud really is the source of practical Jewish law, but it is not studied that way. (And not even in a way from which one can derive the non-practical law.) I would be very happy if we studied the law from within the Talmud.
Also, it is obvious that there is value in the study itself; the question is why specifically Talmud. After all, Talmud is not the Torah itself (the Five Books of Moses) but Jewish law—except that when it is studied on its own it is less practical.
In addition, I do not understand why hair-splitting and debating matters that have no practical significance whatsoever is considered Torah study with some special value. (If we were doing that in the Torah itself I would understand, but I do not understand what the point is in doing that in Jewish law.)