[Avodah] How game theory solved a religious mystery

[Micha Berger]

The context of this discussion is <http://tinyurl.com/65okjc>, R' Yisrael
Aumann (a/k/a Prof Robert Aumann, the Nobel Laureate in Economics 2005)
and his explanation of a difficult question in hilkhos yerushah.

On Areivim, RZS asked about the value in general:
> *If* Prof. Auman was mechaeven to the intention of the original Amoraim,
> then yasher koach to him, and we can now understand this gemara better
> than the rishonim did; and maybe there are more gemaras that the same
> knowledge will help interpret, but maybe that's the only one. Is it
> really worth studying game theory just for that? Once one has 'filled
> his belly with bread and meat', perhaps; but surely not until then.

The quote about lechem ubasar is significant, and can't be summarily
dismissed.

On Fri, Aug 20, 2010 at 08:43:38AM -0400, Prof. Levine quoted R'
Barukh Shklover's introduction to Seifer Euclidus (which he translated
to Hebrew by the Gra's request):
> "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 ..."

In Qol haTor the Gra is quoted as giving a 100:1 ratio -- that one misses
out on 100 yadim of Torah for every yad of other chokhmos that he
lacks. See the longer discussion at
<http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/faxes/schreiber_gaon.pdf> by R' Aharom
Moshe Schreiber.

This topic gives me a chance to plug the hesped I wrote for R' Eliezer /
Dr Leon Ehrenpreis z"l
<http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2010/08/r-dr-eliezer-ehrenpreis-zl.shtml>.
I open with an example of how REE opened his version of Calc 101 by
teaching a Tosafos in Sukkah. None of RYBS's dialectics or "ramatayim
tzofim" between torah umaddah; math and Torah were to him parts of a
single whole.

In which case, one isn't conflicting with the filling up on meat and
wine. Which is plausibly the Gra's derekh in understanding that Chazal.

Alternatively, RARR suggests that "filling up on meat and wine" isn't
knowing kol haTorah kulah kulah, but knowing enough to be anchored in
it. Such that whatever other chokhmos one then accumulates become tavlin,
and Torah remains the iqar (the "meat") of the meal.

:-)BBii!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Take time,
micha at aishdas.org        be exact,
http://www.aishdas.org   unclutter the mind.
Fax: (270) 514-1507            - Rabbi Simcha Zissel Ziv, Alter of Kelm