Q&A: Non-Torah Topics in the Gemara
Non-Torah Topics in the Gemara
Question
Hello,
This is a question that has been bothering me for some time. We know that in the Gemara there are topics that seem not to be related to Torah (for example, the remedies in the chapter Mi SheAchazo).
If we were to find these remedies in exactly the same wording in an old medical textbook, it would be obvious that this is not Torah. Now that this appears in the Gemara, does it somehow become Torah? Can I recite the blessings over Torah study on it? Can I read it in the bathroom or on Tisha B’Av?
If it is Torah, why? Other than the fact that it is printed in the Vilna Talmud.
Answer
Hello.
I have written more than once that, in my opinion, this has no status of Torah at all, and one should not recite the blessings over Torah study on it. In my view, even regarding the aggadic passages of the Talmud there is considerable doubt whether one may recite the blessing over them. It is like a religious court clarifying a factual matter, or even a scientific one, for the sake of reaching a ruling. That clarification is not Torah, but rather falls into the category of preparations for a commandment.
As for the remedies, not only is that not Torah, it is also not medicine, since for the most part it is known today that they have no substance to them.
Discussion on Answer
We accept the Gemara not because it is “speech from the Almighty,” but because of the authority of the Gemara, so it doesn’t really matter what is from Heaven and what is not. In principle, Maimonides says that everything about which no dispute arose was received by the Jewish people directly from Moses, who received it from God.
But that is only in the halakhic parts. In my opinion, not in the aggadic passages, and certainly not in the remedies.
Maimonides says that regarding what was received from Moses, no dispute arose over it (which is patently implausible), not that everything over which no dispute arose came from Moses.
Hello,
Could the Rabbi please give a definition of what counts as “Torat Emet” / “speech from the Almighty” / “divine truth” (I’m not exactly sure how to define it).
For example, the Five Books of the Torah are definitely “Torat Emet,” right?
So what exactly exactly exactly also counts as “divine truth”?
Thank you very much