[Avodah] A Tool for Effective Communication

[Prof. Levine]

The week's Hamodia Magazine contains an article with the above title 
by Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Klein, director of publications and
communications for Torah Umesorah in New York.  The Hamodia has given 
me permission to post this article and it may be read at

http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/hamodia/tool_communication.pdf

The article begins with the question "We live in a town that offers a 
choice of schools for my children, and the issue of limudei chol has 
arisen more than once, making me wonder what role secular studies 
should play in the chinuch of our children. What is the Torah 
viewpoint?" Towards the end of the article, Rabbi Klein writes, "It 
is certainly desirable that Torah Jewry maintain a comprehensive 
press of the highest caliber, and it seems most desirable that our 
system of chinuch be capable of providing the personnel to write for it."

"It is not acceptable that our own talmidim and avreichim lack the 
linguistic skill to portray the teachings of Torah to their 
uninitiated brothers and sisters in a
convincing and appealing manner. This is perhaps the greatest calling 
of our age."

For his entire approach to this topic, please see the article at the above URL.

I send a letter to the editor of the Hamodia Magazine (which they may 
or may not publish, of course!) I wrote

To the Editor,

I read with interest Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Klein's article "A Tool For 
Effective Communication" in this week's Hamodia Magazine in which he 
responds to a question about the Torah viewpoint of the "role secular 
studies should play in the chinuch of  our children."

I find it surprising that he did not present the following views from 
two gedolim of the past.

"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 ..."

(This quote is from  the introduction to the Hebrew translation of 
Euclid's book on geometry, Sefer Uklidos [The Hague, 1780] by R. 
Barukh Schick of Shklov where he recalls his meeting with the Vilna Gaon.)

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."

If one needs more to be convinced that secular studies should be an 
important part of a yeshiva education, then I suggest one read Rav 
Shimshon Raphael Hirsch's Essay "The Relevance of Secular Studies to 
Jewish Education" that appears on pages 81 - 100 of volume VII of his 
Collected Writings.

Professor Yitzchok Levine

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