Q&A: Several Questions
Several Questions
Question
- What is the obligation of setting fixed times for Torah study? Once a day or more? How long—one minute, an hour, two hours? Does it have to be at a fixed time?
- Is a man allowed to wait on women?
- Is it permitted to play guitar casually (not at a celebratory commandment occasion), even though Maran wrote (siman 551) that the custom was to refrain?
- Can one argue that “mayim acharonim is optional,” since people did not practice it? (At least among Sephardic communities.) [That is what Rabbi Cherki argues.]
- If a Jewish person develops a philosophy, is it called “Jewish thought,” or only if it accords with the Jewish tradition?
Answer
1. These are matters that have no fixed measure. The minimum threshold is a chapter in the morning and a chapter in the evening, or even the recitation of the Shema. But there is an obligation beyond the strict law not to neglect Torah study. Look for an article here on the site, and also a lecture: Torah study and the commandment of Torah study.
2. Why not?
3. The custom is indeed that way. You can search online for the explanations.
4. Both opinions appear in the Shulchan Arukh. The question whether something is optional or not does not depend on custom. Even if someone thinks the halakhic decisors rule that it is not required, others can think that it is obligatory.
5. There is no such thing as “Jewish thought.” And certainly the character of a philosophy is not determined by the thinker's mother. There is correct philosophy (even if the thinker's mother was a gentile) and incorrect philosophy (even if she was Jewish). See the second book of the trilogy.
Discussion on Answer
1. If one fulfills the obligation of “setting” times for Torah study even with the Shema, then what is added by “setting times” for Torah study? After all, it would be enough just to recite the Shema.
How do you know what the Jewish law is in any case of dispute? There are two opinions here. Simply speaking, the Shulchan Arukh implies that it is obligatory (because he brings the opinion that exempts only anonymously at the end of the siman). Now do with that whatever seems right to you.
That is a difficulty on the Talmud, which says that the Shema in the morning and evening is enough. I explained this in the articles mentioned above.
"Both opinions appear in the Shulchan Arukh. The question whether something is optional or not does not depend on custom."
So what is the criterion, if not custom?
It depends on the way you learned the passage. If in your view it is not optional, then no.
4. So how do we know whether mayim acharonim is obligatory?