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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">Secular Studies and Torah Learning<o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">The following is from pages 148-149
<b>of Judaism's Encounter with Other Cultures: Rejection or Integration?<br>
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</b>Given what the GRA said below, one can only wonder why music is not taught in all of our yeshivas.
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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]
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[11.] Pe’at ha-Shulhan, ed. Abraham M. Luncz (Jerusalem, 1911), 5a.<o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt">“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 …”<br>
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(From the Introduction to the Hebrew translation of Euclid’s book on geometry, Sefer Uklidos [The Hague, 1780] by R. Barukh Schick of Shklov, one of the main talmidim of the Vilna Gaon.)<br>
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R. Yhonason Eybeschutz in <i>Yaaros Devash</i> 2:7 (as translated by L. Levi in <i>
Torah and</i> <i>Science </i> pages 24-25) writes:<br>
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"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 <i>Eglah Arufah </i>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
<i>Niddah </i>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 <i>kilayim</i> [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."<br>
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In light of the above, I simply do not understand why some yeshiva boys do not receive an adequate secular education and why secular subjects are disparaged in some circles.</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p>On Shabbos I showed these quotes to a 16-year-old yeshiva bochur. He said, "But everything is in the Torah." I replied, "Show me where the Pythagorean theorem is in the Torah." Needless to say,
he had no reply.<span id="😈">😈</span></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt"><o:p>YL<br>
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