[Avodah] Torah limud: theoretical/academic versus lishma/yirat hashem/emunat chachamim

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 02:03:31PM +0200, Michael Makovi wrote:
: I think the problem we have is you have made the academic and Torah
: approaches mutually exclusive. You seem to hold that either one
: approaches everything objectively and theoretically, OR he approaches
: it from a Torah perspective of lishma and yirat hashem and emunat
: chachamim.

No, he can do both. But then he is doing two different things. I'm
saying that as kinds, they are distinct.

REB is famous for one kind of study, objective and theoretical study.
Which is not talmud torah in the sense of trying to internalize and
have a subjective relationship to Torah. As an O Jew, he engaged in
talmud Torah as well, but that's not what catapulted him into fame,
or the majority of his published work.

...
: The fact is that there is a great amount of academic knowledge
: available today that simply was not available in the past, period.
: Today, then, we cannot simply ignore it, but rather, we must confront
: it and deal with it one way or the other...

Mesorah is a chain; it ties us to generations past and gives us a duty
to generations in the future. 

:                   being an observant Jew does not mean ignoring the
: academic information, and being an academic doesn't mean that he
: doesn't believe in Sinai and keep halacha. The two can be mutually
: exclusive, but don't have to be.

Agreed.

However, Talmud Torah isn't about that information, it's about being a
part of the living fulfillment of beris Sinai, part of the flow of the
mesorah. The role of the Meiri in that is diminished; never mind the
role of contextual information.

So, the O Jew should be fascinated and study such info. But he shouldn't
confuse it with that which defines how we are to live as O Jews. Not
just in terms of halachic authority, but also in terms of perceptions
of the goals we live toward. Because, after all, the two are inseprable.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Here is the test to find whether your mission
micha at aishdas.org        on Earth is finished:
http://www.aishdas.org   if you're alive, it isn't.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                        - Richard Bach