[Avodah] Fw: The Vilna Gaon and Secular Studies

[Prof. L. Levine]

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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.

YL


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