[Avodah] Secular knowledge

[Hankman]

On Tue, Feb 01, 2011 at 06:39:15AM -0500, Prof. Levine wrote:
> Question:  If this indeed the case, namely, that "from plumbing the  
> depths of the Torah he can know all the wisdom of the world,"  then why 
> is there no mention in the GRA's sefer Aiyel Meshulash of Torah sources 
> for the mathematics he presents?  YL

CM asks:

I  think the more interesting question is: Are all things (Chachmos, ideas or logic) derived from Torah, themselves Torah? I have always assumed this to be true (without any proof - axiomatic). If true, then the 6 chachmos are themselves Torah too. If not, where do you draw the line between Torah ideas and non-Torah ideas? If true, why am I not mekayeim limud Torah when studying algebra, Geometry, Trig, Calculus, Diff. Eq.  etc. I limit my examples to math since in this realm it is reasonably easy to discuss chachmos we know to be definitely true. (Sh'ain bahem shum dofi). In the other sciences it becomes more difficult to point to chachmos that are absolutely true. Ie., Newtonian physics is pretty good, but as we all know is but an approximation to the truth, ditto for classical physics vs quantum mechanics both of which are extremely good approximations in their areas of application, but both of which are false in the ultimate sense. This becomes more true as we move to those sciences that depend on statistics and approximations for more and more of their content etc. But in theory, any kernel of truth in them that we know to be certainly true, the same question would apply, Why is this not Torah, if this is also derivable from Torah? [Also if "Chafoch bah vechafoch bah, decola bah," then why only 6 branches of chachma, why not all chachma - unless of course that beraisa categorizes ALL knowledge into 6 branches.] [Not sure where that would leave Chemistry, Biology (DNA), etc, if we have distilled real kernels of truth or just very useful approximations).

The underlying assumption in all of this is that anything that is false will of course not be derivable from Torah. Thus approximations that are in the ultimate sense false (even though useful) would not be derivable or part of "decola bah." Am I building castles in the air?

 Kol Tuv

Chaim Manaster
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