Q&A: Necessary sciences.
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Necessary sciences.
Question
Hello, honored Rabbi,
I would be glad to know which subjects and sciences, in your view, a person must study in order to investigate and understand the universe properly—I mean in an essential sense.
Thank you very much.
Answer
Nothing is absolutely required, and no one can learn everything. It depends on what interests you. There is no closed list that obligates everyone, and there are no particular aspects that are the important ones. Someone who is interested in psychology, or physics, or mathematics, or the life sciences, or anthropology, literature, philosophy—all of these are fields that contribute to understanding the world.
Thank you for the answer.
What is important about physics or literature? How will it advance me to know one more law of physics or one less law? Aren’t logic, philosophy, and the like more necessary and more conducive to progress?