Q&A: Learning What Is Not Torah
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Learning What Is Not Torah
Question
You rightly wrote that seeing a pink table advances, to a tiny degree, our knowledge of the color of ravens (which is different from pink). What about Torah study: if one learns that a certain line of reasoning is not correct in Torah, and that there is no commandment to wave a scepter on the night after the 4th of Cheshvan, is that “Torah study” in itself, and has the person thereby acquired a crumb of knowledge of Torah?
Answer
If there is even a trace of an initial supposition that it might be so, then maybe yes.
Discussion on Answer
I think not—not because it isn’t Torah, but because it isn’t study.
We study Talmud, as a remembrance of Torah study.
Even in regular Torah study, in order for something to count as Torah study, does there have to be at least some trace of an initial supposition that it might be wrong? Does the definition of Torah depend on a person’s prior knowledge? (Or are you distinguishing between Torah and Torah study?) For example, if someone already knows the laws of the Sabbath through and through, and now reviews them again (not in order to strengthen his memory, which is already more than strong enough, and not for the sake of deeper analysis), does he not recite the blessings over Torah study for that?