20th Century Jewish Religious Thought: Original Essays on Critical Concepts, Movements, and Beliefs

Study

Study Aharon Lichtenstein I n Jewish thought and experience, few values are as cherished as talmud Torah, the study of Torah; and few cultures, if any, have assigned to learning of any kind-let alone the mastery of scriptural and legal texts-the status it enjoys within Judaism. That priority is not the result of much-vaunted Jewish intellectualism. Quite the contrary ; it is, if anything, the latter's cause rather than its effect. Its true source is the specifically religious role that Jewish law and tradition have accorded talmud Torah. This religious role is multifaceted. The study of Torah constitutes, at one level, a halakhic act, entailing the realization of a divine commandmentand one of the preeminent commandments at that. As such, it has a dual basis. On the one hand, it is a distinct normative category, positing specific goals and prescribing, like other mi~ot, clearly defined conduct enjoined by a particular mandate. The mi~ah of talmud Torah charges the Jew to acquire knowledge of Torah, insofar as he is able; but it addresses itself primarily to the process rather than the result. Its minimal demand, some daily study of Torah, is formulated in verses included in the first portion of 932 STUDY the Shema: "Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deut. 6:6-7). On the other hand, it is included in the far more general charge enjoining the Jew "to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your heart and soul" (Deut. 11:13)-that service requiring, as the midrash postulates, the study of Torah apart from ritual and prayer (Sif. Deut. 5). At a second level, talmud Torah is viewed axiologically-both as an independent value and as a means of ensuring and enriching spiritual existence, both personal and collective. Engagement with Torah for its own sake, lishmah , is a prime goal. Its raison d'etre need not be sought by reference to other categories, moral or religious. Can study that "only" entails live contact with the revealed and expounded divine Word be less than invaluable? Obviously, that contact can ordinarily have instrumental value as well-in two respects. First, study provides knowledge requisite to halakhic living even as it deepens halakhic commitment. Second, since talmud Torah enables a person, within limits, to cleave unto God, it has moral, passional, and pietistic repercussions. These elements exist on the collective plane as well. Beyond them, however , one may note a more strictly public aspect. As Torah itself is the basis of Israel's covenant with God, so is its study a means both of cementing that bond and of providing communal uplift. In one sense, this applies to the oral Law in particular, as the intimacy of the covenantal relationship is experienced within it uniquely. "Rabbi Johanan stated: 'The Holy One, blessed be He, entered into a covenant \\Tith Israel only because of oral matters , as it is written [Ex. 34:27]: "For after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee, and with Israel" '" (BT Git. 60B). The principle , however, applies to Torah in its entirety, with its full conceptual and experiential import. At a third level, the role of talmud Torah is conceived in cosmological and mystical terms, bordering, in some formulations, on the magical. From this perspective, it attains continuous cosmic significance as a metaphysical factor affecting the fabric of reality-indeed, as that which supports and sustains the very existence of the universe. The Talmud cites this concept in the name of Rabbi Eleazar, who, interpreting a biblical verse in this vein, saw it as attesting to the significance of Torah: "Rabbi Eleazar said: 'Great is Torah for, were it not for it, heaven and earth would not exist, as it is stated [Jer. 33:25], "If my covenant be not day and night, I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth" '" (BT Ned. 32a); and elsewhere the Talmud explains the gravity of bittul Torah-literally, "the nega- STUDY 933 tion of Torah," that is, the failure to study it adequately-on a similar basis (BT Shabo 33a). Rabbi I:Iayyim Isaac Volozhiner, founder in 1802 of the archetypal Lithuanian yeshivah and the most vigorous modern proponent...