Q&A: The Commandment of Torah Study
The Commandment of Torah Study
Question
Rabbi, let’s say I read the story of King David in the Book of Samuel. By doing that, I am fulfilling a Torah-level commandment of Torah study. But if I read that same story in another book dealing with world history or the history of the Jewish people, even by a non-Jewish author, am I also thereby fulfilling the commandment of Torah study? A practical difference would be the blessing over Torah study, for example. And if not, why not? Is it only the wording of the canonical text of Samuel itself, in our case, that determines whether one fulfills the commandment of Torah study or not? That would be surprising, because seemingly the information that comes out of the text is the main thing, so why should it matter whether it comes from the Book of Samuel or from another book?
Answer
I’ve written about this more than once. Indeed, in my opinion the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) (in its non-halakhic parts) is Torah only in a formal sense. That same information, if drawn from another source, would not be Torah, unless it is being used to understand the biblical text. This is formal Torah, but personally I do not see any value in studying it in itself (aside from formally fulfilling a commandment). These matters are explained in detail in my book No Man Rules the Spirit.
Discussion on Answer
No. What I said was only about the Bible. In the Oral Torah, the parts that are good conduct are not Torah in the object-sense, but at most in the person-sense (search here on the site for that distinction). It’s no different from any other book of advice.
So even in Tractate Avot, all the levels of ethical guidance are Torah only in a formal sense?
“The shy person cannot learn, and the impatient person cannot teach”; “Do not be contemptuous of any person,” etc. etc.