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<font size=3>The following is from pages 148-149 of <b>Judaism's
Encounter with Other Cultures: Rejection or Integration?<br><br>
</b>Given what the GRA said below, one can only wonder why music is not
taught in all of our yeshivas. For the record, a friend of mine who
is the secular studies principal of a Mesivtha in Brooklyn wrote to me
that his school does have a course in music appreciation. YL<br><br>
R. Israel of Shklov (d. 1839) wrote:<br>
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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] <br>
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[11.] Pe’at ha-Shulhan, ed. Abraham M. Luncz (Jerusalem, 1911), 5a.<br>
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