Q&A: Why Study Gemara?
Why Study Gemara?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I’ll start by apologizing for the question itself. I saw that the Rabbi has already answered quite a few similar questions. But I didn’t see an answer in the Rabbi’s responses that satisfied me, so I’ll ask the question even though it’s already been asked before.
I’m a student in the fourth year at a junior yeshiva. Basically, over the last three years I studied every day 4 hours of in-depth analysis geared toward practical Jewish law, plus another two hours of the yeshiva’s breadth-study session, and about two more hours of independent study, all centered around the Talmud.
In the last half-year I’ve lost all interest in studying it. Until then it was really clear to me why I was learning—to understand Jewish law from its roots, so that in the future I could issue rulings on my own, to connect to God, to sharpen my mind, etc. But suddenly all of that disappeared.
I have no desire at all to issue rulings when I’m older; Peninei Halakha is enough for me. And to understand Jewish law from the root, Menuchat Ahavah with notes is enough [at least for the level at which I want to understand it. And when a case comes up that isn’t explicitly mentioned in Peninei Halakha, I’ll still be able to say what the law is. I have no interest in knowing all the reasoning that was rejected in practice and all the pilpul around it.]
You can connect to God through other studies too—by studying the Written Torah or faith, don’t you connect to God? Isn’t God revealed there?
And my intellectual interest in it has also declined. The claim that the loftiest “wisdom” is, in the end, a certain kind of reading comprehension just doesn’t make sense to me. Philosophy / physics / mathematics / anything that requires thinking and not just understanding what your predecessors said is more interesting [and contains more wisdom, in my opinion]. And you can sharpen the mind through mathematics too, or by studying logic or any other subject.
I’ll take advantage of the fact that no one knows me here and say that we also don’t find any special wisdom in the Sages. In every field that can be checked, they didn’t show any special talent. Their scientific knowledge is extremely deficient, in philosophy they’re unclear, and when you do understand them they’re pretty similar to other philosophies of their time [except that with them there’s no systematic development. They removed the interesting part.] And in mathematics too they don’t have major innovations. [Though with a sufficiently creative interpretation you can show how all of modern physics is written in the words of the Sages. But to think those bizarre interpretations are the original intent is madness.]
So yes, we are halakhically obligated to it by virtue of tradition, since the entire Jewish people accepted it as the binding halakhic work—but why should I, as someone who has no interest in delving into the roots of Jewish law, study it? Why not study Jewish thought 12 hours a day? Or the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), which the yeshivas have simply forgotten? Or general philosophy? Or physics? To advance the world in important areas?
Answer
Although I’m not anonymous here, I’ve written this here more than once. I do not think the Talmud is wiser, more complex, or harder than physics and mathematics. As far as I’m concerned, the opposite is true. The reason to study it is not to sharpen the mind. That’s nonsense. You’ve turned a means into an end. The reason is that study is cleaving to the will of God, and Jewish law is an expression of His will. All the other Torah fields, in my opinion, are also neither wise nor interesting and teach nothing. I’ve written about this more than once on this site, and there were bitter arguments about it. In my view, the attraction to them is a search for an easy life and experiences instead of working hard.
I would also note that even regarding knowledge of Jewish law, studying Peninei Halakha is not knowledge of Jewish law. You are supposed to decide for yourself what to do, not read it in Peninei Halakha or in Menuchat Ahavah.
Up to this point, this is general. But if you have no taste for it, then there really is no point in your investing too much time in it.
Discussion on Answer
According to the Rabbi’s story about his father, who was a school principal and saw there was no enthusiasm for studying Talmud, so he reduced the hours of Talmud study—the conclusion is the same in your case too. Better to enlist and refresh yourself outside. After the army, think it over and decide whether you want to dedicate your life to Torah or not.
At the time, I realized that I didn’t want to dedicate my life to Torah, and I left. There is Torah study even after yeshiva.
If you’re already settled in your view that all this doesn’t interest you, then indeed there’s no point. But if you’re 18, it’s usually too early to form a firm position. I don’t know what you studied and in which yeshiva, but I’m not sure you encountered meaningful study. Maybe yes, maybe not—I don’t know.
Other studies, in my opinion, are valueless and unnecessary in the learning sense. There are people whom, for some reason, this interests and builds them personally, and each person knows himself. Not me. The reasons for the commandments are a study of inventions by various people who decided what the reasons for the commandments are. You can invent similar things yourself too.
With God’s help, eve of the holy Sabbath, “toward the front of the menorah shall the lamps shine,” Tisa 5781
To Anonymous—greetings and courtesy,
In our generation, when every daughter of Israel studies the entire Talmud and halakhic decisors in depth and breadth—if you don’t fill yourself with comprehensive knowledge of the Talmud and the methods of analysis and halakhic ruling, how will you manage to create a common language with your future spouse, without understanding her conversation and discourse and ways of thinking?
How will you stand before your wife’s learning when you look at her like “a rooster among human beings,” without knowing her conceptual world? Why should your share in the world of learning be diminished? Will you find satisfaction in twisting wicks for the Temple?
With blessings, Devorah wife of Lapidot
A religious fundamentalist with too much sense of humor
To Anonymous, you wrote: “Because if I understood correctly, the only part of Torah that matters is the Talmud that leads to Jewish law, through which one cleaves to the will of God, and if I have no interest in it then there’s no point in studying”—how exactly did you understand that from what Rabbi Michi said? I’m very surprised he didn’t correct you. The important part of the Talmud is that it leads to cleaving to the will of God. Jewish law is only a byproduct. Meaning, even if one cleaves to the will of God through the Order of Kodashim, that too is cleaving to the will of God, and it has nothing to do with whether it leads to practical Jewish law or not.
“Up to this point, this is general. But if you have no taste for it, then there really is no point in your investing too much time in it.”
What does that mean—why shouldn’t he invest in it in order to fulfill the commandment to study Torah, even without any taste for it?
Hello Rabbi.
The reasons for the commandments are an invention of people—in the same way, Jewish law too is an invention of people [based on a certain tradition that ultimately came from God at Mount Sinai. But the overwhelming majority, at the very least everything that is disputed, is in the end human reasoning.] So Jewish law is binding on us and the reasons for the commandments are not, because they are not something that can be acted on. But both are human inventions whose purpose is closeness to God—here through Jewish law [a kind of legal obligation], and here through understanding the essence and walking by it. Why do you give preferred status to the first and dismiss the second? Why is there connection to the will of God in this, but not in that? And beyond that, according to the Jerusalem Talmud, where there is also room for halakhic ruling in matters of thought, their status ought to be truly equal!
What do you mean by unnecessary in the learning sense? Is there value to learning in and of itself? [The Rabbi said that the purpose of learning is cleaving to the will of God and the ability to rule for yourself, meaning there is a purpose to learning. So in the end Torah study too is meant for a certain kind of personal development. And if the Rabbi means the commandment of Torah study—as far as I know it is fulfilled by both.]
To the other commenters:
Yishai—even the Order of Kodashim leads to Jewish law. True, it isn’t practical nowadays, but it is Jewish law. It is a revelation of the will of God in the world. [By the same token, studying tractate Yevamot is also unnecessary, and that is one of the tractates studied most in yeshivas.]
A question for the Rabbi: what is your opinion about studying the Order of Kodashim [or any other order] not for the sake of practical Jewish law? For example, studying the Order of Kodashim according to the Brisker method?
Devorah—I know how to study. I find it hard to believe that my future wife will manage to trip me up with a topic that I won’t be able to learn. It’s not shameful to open a book during a discussion; you don’t need to remember everything by heart. And thank God, four years of four hours of in-depth study a day plus the same number of hours of breadth study [besides Bible studies, thought, Jewish law, etc.] are enough to develop the ability to understand what’s being discussed and express an opinion.
We have wearied ourselves here a great deal over these matters, and they are detailed in my trilogy, in the second book. It’s hard for me to go back over these endless arguments yet again. See there, and in the columns on studying the Hebrew Bible, studying Hasidism, and much more.
With God’s help, 23 Sivan 5781
To Anonymous—hello,
From what I know of the life stories of the author of Menuchat Ahavah of blessed memory, and may the author of Peninei Halakha live long and well, I get the impression that at your age they had far richer and more grounded Torah knowledge than you do. Both of them applied themselves diligently in their studies while in junior yeshiva, and nevertheless—or rather, precisely because of that—they understood that they needed to go on to senior yeshiva in order to deepen and broaden their knowledge in the expanses and treasures of Torah, both in the Talmud and in Scripture and Jewish thought. They certainly did not feel they had “enough knowledge to develop the ability to understand what is being discussed,” and all the more so not the “ability to express” a sharp Torah opinion.
I had the privilege of knowing Rabbi Eliezer Melamed. We both entered Merkaz HaRav in the same year. He came from the youth yeshiva with his study partner, Rabbi Dani Cohen, and the two of them had gone through the entire Talmud with Rashi and a significant portion of Tosafot comments, according to a list prepared for them by his father, Rabbi Zalman Melamed, and that is how he grew in Torah.
Precisely for a student like you, who has acquired a good base in learning in junior yeshiva—there is a great deal to expand and deepen in Torah study. For example, in addition to study geared toward practical Jewish law, add another layer of analysis into conceptual reasoning and definitions in the style of Rabbi Chaim of Brisk or Rabbi Shimon Shkop, so that a student like you, who finds philosophy interesting, will find taste and interest in their reasoning and abstract analyses.
Besides a second story of in-depth learning—at a senior yeshiva or a hesder yeshiva, you should also ground your knowledge in hundreds more folio pages of Talmud with Rashi and Tosafot, which are the foundation of the whole “Jewish bookshelf”; develop broad and thorough knowledge of the Hebrew Bible and its commentators, old and new, and of the books of thought and philosophy by the great rabbis of Israel: Saadia Gaon and Rabbi Judah Halevi, Maimonides and Nachmanides, the Maharal and the Ramchal, the masters of ethical and Hasidic literature, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, and Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveitchik.
And above all, during one’s years of study in yeshiva, a person meets Torah figures of a high level—rabbis and exceptionally gifted peers—from whom one absorbs not only Torah knowledge, halakhic and analytical, but also finds “teachers for life,” whose guidance accompanies us for many years after we leave and enter life.
In short: three or four years in a senior yeshiva or a hesder yeshiva still won’t make you a halakhic decisor with the ability to “express” a firm opinion, but they will make you an educated layman, able to set fixed times for Torah study with depth and understanding and to give classes to your neighbors, and to help your children in their Torah studies,
and an educated layman can also know how to answer himself and his children about questions and difficulties that arise concerning various issues in Jewish law and worldview, to recognize different modes of thought and understand them even if he does not agree with them. After all, we are constantly exposed to arguments and disagreements “from within and from without.” A basic understanding of the reasoning on each side helps us form a position through careful clarification, and not through “shooting from the hip.”
It is important to remember: when you “go out into life,” to academic studies and the burden of livelihood and family, there isn’t much time left even to breathe. The few years in which there is still free time to toil in Torah for a full day provide foundations that you won’t be able to acquire “until retirement.” The main thing is to use the time and study in an orderly and clear way.
With a blessing for growth in Torah, with taste, interest, and the joy of creativity,
S.Z. Levinger, Kokhav HaShahar
My words as “Devorah wife of Lapidot” were said with a touch of humor, in the context of the heated discussion about excluding women from Torah study. But they are also true in earnest. Women today also understand that it is impossible to develop a Torah worldview without a solid familiarity with the “Jewish bookshelf” in depth and breadth, from the sources themselves and not only from “abridged books.” The author of Peninei Halakha, too, maintains a hesder yeshiva and continuing study halls, and does not rely on people knowing everything from Peninei Halakha alone 🙂
Obviously sharpening the mind is not an ultimate purpose. I was just going over everything I “get” from studying Talmud.
I forgot to say—I’m finishing yeshiva in two months, and then I have two options ahead of me: either go to a senior yeshiva or enlist.
So if I understood the Rabbi correctly, you’re saying, based on what I wrote above, that apparently it would be better for me to enlist right away? Not to “invest too much time in it”? [Because if I understood correctly, the only part of Torah that matters is the Talmud that leads to Jewish law, through which one cleaves to the will of God, and if I have no interest in it then there’s no point in studying.]
Aren’t there other, more interesting ways, to cleave to the will of God? Why isn’t studying the reasons for the commandments, whose whole point is what God wants, considered cleaving, while discussing a dispute between Rashi and Maimonides is? Or studying physics, given that God created the world by His will?