Whose Study Takes Precedence?

Rabbi Melanie Aron

October 30, 2004

In the Talmud we find a memorable dilemma, in the story of two men wandering through the desert, with a flask of water, containing enough, to sustain only one of them. Should they share the water and both die, or should the owner of the flask save his own life?

Another less dramatic, but still important dilemma, is the case of father and son who both want to study Torah, but the family only has the wherewithal for one of them to study. This is discussed in the Maimonides’ Mishnah Torah, Hilchot Talmud Torah chapter 1, halachah 4.

“If a person wants to study Torah and he has a son whom he should teach Torah, his study takes precedence over that of his son. If his son is wise and a more creative thinker and can understand what he studies more than he himself, the son is given priority. Even though his son is granted priority, he should not neglect his own studies, for just as he is commanded to teach his son, he is commanded to teach himself.”

It was striking to me how much importance Maimonides places on the father’s study. In our own communities often we give a great deal more attention to making sure that our children are engaged in Jewish learning, rather than seeing that as an adult responsibility. Placing our children’s education first flows from our contemporary understanding, which I believe focuses on only one half of the traditional mitzvah of Talmud Torah, Torah study.

Rabbi Eliezer Malammed of the Yeshivah University in New York, in an article on Talmud Torah, reminds us that there are really two aspects of this mitzvah, this commandment, one practical and one spiritual. The practical aspect is Talmud Torah, study of Torah, so as to know the fundamentals, those things necessary for Jewish practice and observance. Sunday school and Hebrew school are designed to fulfill this aspect of the commandment, teaching you about holidays and rituals, instilling in you basic skills so that you can celebrate Shabbat at home, lead a seder, feel comfortable at a services, in short live a Jewish life. After all Pirke Avot teaches us that the ignorant cannot be observant, and so we learn in order to do.

But there is a second aspect of Talmud Torah. Even after we know the fundamentals, we continue to learn so that we might delve more deeply into the wisdom of Torah. Even if we were all wise, all learned, all deeply conversant with the Torah, we would still engage in Torah study. Thus the strange wording of the commandment, rather than being commanded to learn Torah or to know Torah, we are commanded, laasok bedivrei Torah, to engage yourself in the study of Torah. This is because the times when we study are the times when we are closest to God. When we study, we are connected, as Maimonides would say, to the realm of the Eternal and Absolute, the Intelligence of the Universe.

The practical aspect of this mitzvah is usually fulfilled when we are younger, but the other, the spiritual aspect of the commandment, is a lifetime pursuit.

As you know there are many midrashim suggesting that at a young age, Abraham had insight into the oneness of God. In fact, there is one midrash that states that it was when he was thirteen years old, Bar Mitzvah, that Abraham smashed the idols in his father’s store, outraging the local idol worshipping community.

Yet despite attaining that significant understanding as a young man, Taylor and Josh, you have both pointed out to us that Abraham’s learning about God was not complete. Throughout your portion, when Abraham is already an older man, he continues to strive for further understanding of God and God’s ways. This is not easy for him, as at times he disagrees with God, as in the story of Sodom and Gemorrah, and at times what God commands seems to defy any understanding, as in the closing story of the Akedah. Abraham provides a model of continuing to engage with God, even when events in our lives challenge our sense of God’s guidance of the universe or God’s justice and mercy.

Hoi letzameh velo lemayim. There is a thirst that we have which is not for water, but for meaning and transcendence. Josh, your overflow with questions, like a bubbling spring, Taylor, still waters run deep, your questions were challenging all along the way- may you both continue to seek understanding and may you be as Maimonides suggests, one who even in taking on the job of educating his children, does not abandon his own Torah study.