Q&A: Maimonides on Torah Study
Maimonides on Torah Study
Question
Maimonides writes in his introduction to the Mishneh Torah that he composed it so that people could know the Jewish laws with less effort and in less time.
According to that, is someone who knows all the Jewish laws exempt from Torah study?
Or for example, if at some point in the future they find a way to implant information in memory, would someone who had the entire Torah implanted be exempt from studying?
Answer
The opposite. Someone who knows the Jewish laws can begin studying Torah rather than Jewish law. Studying Jewish law is not Torah study; it is a preparatory commandment-enabling tool, so as to know what to do. See my article on Torah study for women.
You remind me of the joke about the kollel fellow who prays for money so that he can leave kollel and start learning.
And as Maimonides explicitly wrote in chapter 3 of the laws of Torah study, there is an intrinsic purpose in the very act of study itself