Q&A: Dedicating Time to Torah Study
Dedicating Time to Torah Study
Question
Hello and blessings. I wanted to ask the Rabbi’s view: how much time is it fitting for a contemporary Jew to dedicate to Torah study each day?
For example, an hour or two, three… or to be a kollel fellow altogether?
In our era it’s hard to combine everything: work, other pursuits (family life, etc.), and also quality study time.
I know this is a simplistic question, and that it varies from person to person. But is there some kind of ideal for a contemporary person to dedicate to Torah study? (Assuming we’re not kollel fellows…)
In my opinion this is an important point, and it needs discussion, or at least clarification… It seems to me that many people are confused about it.
Thanks in advance, and good evening.
Answer
As much as you can, without hysteria and without shying away from engaging in other things that are important and beneficial to you.
Discussion on Answer
That’s simply not correct. Quite a few later authorities raised the contradiction between the passage in Menachot 99 and the passage in Berakhot 35, where Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai switch positions. Or Sameach, Haamek Davar, and several other later authorities each wrote, in his own style, along the lines of what I wrote.
But the Torah literature does not present the issue as something so simple. The verse, “You shall meditate on it day and night,” is expounded in full to impose an obligation on every single minute, and it somewhat sounds as though anything else that is not a “need of the study” is already considered neglect of Torah study. So how does the Rabbi’s approach above actually fit with the straightforward understanding of the view commonly held today, and apparently also in the Torah literature?