[Avodah] Limudei Chol

[Prof. Levine]

[Copied over from his Areivim post. Areivim context deleted. -micha]

"When I was in the illustrious city of Vilna in the presence of the Rav,
the light, the great Gaon, my master and teacher, the light of the eyes
of the exile, the renowned pious one (may Hashem protect and save him)
Rav Eliyahu, in the month of Teves 5538 [January 1778], I heard from his
holy mouth that according to what a person is lacking in knowledge of the
"other wisdoms," correspondingly he will be lacking one hundred portions
in the wisdom of the Torah, because the Torah and the 'other wisdoms'
are inextricably linked together ..."

    From the Introduction to the Hebrew translation of Euclid's book
    on geometry, Sefer Uklidos [The Hague, 1780] by R. Barukh Schick
    of Shklov.

The Gaon encouraged R. Schick to translate Euclid's geometry into Hebrew,
which he did. We also have the Gaon's sefer Ayil Meshulash that deals
with analytic geometry, trigonometry and solid geometry.

The following is from pages 148-149 of Judaism's Encounter with Other
Cultures: Rejection or Integration?

Given what the GRA said below, one can only wonder why music is not
taught in all of our yeshivas.

R. Israel of Shklov (d. 1839) wrote:

I cannot refrain from repeating a true and astonishing story that I
heard from the Gaon's disciple R. Menahem Mendel. It took place when
the Gaon of Vilna celebrated the completion of his commentary on Song of
Songs. . . . He raised his eyes toward heaven and with great devotion
began blessing and thanking God for endowing him with the ability to
comprehend the light of the entire Torah. This included its inner and
outer manifestations. He explained: All secular wisdom is essential for
our holy Torah and is included in it. He indicated that he had mastered
all the branches of secular wisdom, including algebra, trigonometry,
geometry, and music. He especially praised music, explaining that
most of the Torah accents, the secrets of the Levitical songs, and
the secrets of the Tikkunei Zohar could not be comprehended without
mastering it. . . He explained the significance of the various secular
disciplines, and noted that he had mastered them all. Regarding the
discipline of medicine, he stated that he had mastered anatomy, but not
pharmacology. Indeed, he had wanted to study pharmacology with practicing
physicians, but his father prevented him from undertaking its study,
fearing that upon mastering it he would be forced to curtail his Torah
study whenever it would become necessary for him to save a life. . . . He
also stated that he had mastered all of philosophy, but that he had
derived only two matters of significance from his study of it. . . .
The rest of it, he said, should be discarded." [11]

[11.] Pe'at ha-Shulhan, ed. Abraham M. Luncz (Jerusalem, 1911), 5a.


And then there is this.

R. Yhonason Eybeschutz wrote in Yaaros Devash 2:7 (as translated by
L. Levi in Torah and Science, pages 24-25):

For all the sciences are "condiments" and are necessary for our Torah,
such as the science of mathematics, which is the science of measurements
and includes the science of numbers, geometry, and algebra and is very
essential for the measurements required in connection with the Eglah
Arufah and the cities of the Levites and the cities of refuge as well
as the Sabbath boundaries of our cities. The science of weights [i.e.,
mechanics] is necessary for the judiciary, to scrutinize in detail whether
scales are used honestly or fraudulently. The science of vision [optics]
is necessary for the Sanhedrin to clarify the deceits perpetrated by
idolatrous priests; furthermore, the need for this science is great in
connection with examining witnesses, who claim they stood at a distance
and saw the scene, to determine whether the arc of vision extends so
far straight or bent. The science of astronomy is a science of the Jews,
the secret of leap years to know the paths of the constellations and to
sanctify the new moon. The science of nature which includes the science
of medicine in general is very important for distinguishing the blood of
the Niddah whether it is pure or impure and how much more is it necessary
when one strikes his fellow man in order to ascertain whether the blow
was mortal, and if he died whether he died because of it, and for what
disease one may desecrate the Sabbath. Regarding botany, how great is
the power of the Sages in connection with kilayim [mixed crops]! Here
too we may mention zoology, to know which animals may be hybridized;
and chemistry, which is important in connection with the metals used in
the tabernacle, etc.

Now, how much secular education do you need to understand Torah properly?
It would seem quite a bit!

Yitzchok Levine