Q&A: Jewish Law in Practice
Jewish Law in Practice
Question
Hello, my friend Michi!
How are you?
Almost good night 🙂
How’s life?
My question is this: today I gave a lesson on tractate Berakhot (too many words), and I found myself wondering: the message I want to convey is to educate toward scholarly thinking — the kind that asks questions, seeks sources, and rejects things if they don’t fit, especially one that isn’t afraid to wonder even about the Torah.
Why is all this relevant if in the end I’m going to open the Biur Halakhah / Mishnah Berurah?
And in general, why don’t people apply this outside of that? You see Haredi Torah scholars who can be prodigies and great figures and so on, but still, generally speaking, they have the thinking ability of kindergarten children (at least in political matters).
Thank you for your time!
Answer
I have no answer. They apparently block themselves from thinking about subjects outside the Talmudic box.
Discussion on Answer
They think the learning is not meant in order to reach the halakhic conclusion. It is an end in itself.
Why, in your view, is Talmud study relevant if at the end of the day you learn all this just in order to open the Mishnah Berurah?
In my opinion, you’ve dealt with this.