[Avodah] The Chanukah Musings of a Mathematician

[Rich, Joel]

	And now we can presume the usual back-and-forth about TuM has
occured,<<
	
	>>>>>
	The Gra knew and used mathematics but I really don't think you
can legitimately claim him as an early exemplar of TuM.   You also are
not going to find any charedi RW Torah-only types claiming that a ben
Torah should davka NOT know any math, not even the simplest arithmetic.

	 
	I would not even attempt to claim the Gra for TIDE, though I
think doing so would be a little closer to the mark than TuM.
	
	--Toby Katz
	=============

	To be mkayem R'MB's original nvuah, and to prove as Rn'TK posted
on a widely read blog that she rarely if ever agrees with me :-),
there's a world of difference between saying "that a ben Torah should
davka NOT know any math" and saying that for every lack of "non-torah"
(whatever that means) knowledge one misses 100 times in torah
knowledge(implying a useful pursuit).  WRT the original issue, sure one
could claim that one need not study math (e.g. the ayil mshulash was a
waste of time to read) because one could derive it from torah sources.
Even if this statement is completely true, to derive R'Yl's formula from
first principles imvho would be a huge bittul zman when compared with
studying some basic math.  These comments should be extrapolated to the
other sciences (soft and hard).
	 
	KT
	Joel Rich

THIS MESSAGE IS INTENDED ONLY FOR THE USE OF THE 
ADDRESSEE.  IT MAY CONTAIN PRIVILEGED OR CONFIDENTIAL 
INFORMATION THAT IS EXEMPT FROM DISCLOSURE.  Dissemination, 
distribution or copying of this message by anyone other than the addressee is 
strictly prohibited.  If you received this message in error, please notify us 
immediately by replying: "Received in error" and delete the message.  
Thank you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20071204/94958754/attachment-0002.htm>