Igros Moshe (YD IV #36.9) Question: Is it an obligation to learn the entire Torah? Answer It seems from the Rambam that there is a mitzva for everyone to learn the entire Torah. However this is just a superficial knowledge such as we find with daf Yomi.
Igros Moshe (YD IV #36.10) Question What is the mitzva of Torah study? Answer There is also an obligation to know the entire Torah and be a genuine talmid chachom and to be able to decide halacha. This applies to all Jews so that every generation will have many great talmidei chachomim that know all of the Torah.and be able to poskim even for those things things which aren’t relevant today such as kodshim and taharos and new moon as well as sanhesdrin and kings. .
Not that the neviim are included in this...
ReplyDeleteYou sure Rav Moshe didnt think learning neviim is part of Torah study?
DeleteThe yeshivot that follow him certainly don't
DeleteRav Soloveitchik writes in his book Halakhic Man that he remembers in his shul in Brisk that they would read Tehillim between mincha and Maariv, and then hsi Grandfather Rav Chaim would object because it was taking away from real learning... which was gemara, halacha..
DeleteYes, Chazal even discuss what's appropriate to learn on Shabbos and mention that Tehillim should be discouraged because it takes away from Talmud.
DeleteWhere's the source that you don't read Tehillim at night? Or that you don't drink red kiddush wine on ereve Shabbos?
DeleteThose are things? Never heard of them before.
DeleteGoogle AI doesn't know about the wine thing. It also says that one should avoid the Written Torah at night for kabbalistic reasons but nothing about tehillim.
David hamelech wrote some of his tehillim at night. Hence I refuse to call him "Dovid" , as he apparently didn't know Kabbalah
DeletePerhaps there's a difference between reading and learning Tehillim. Sitting and reciting them might be considered on a lower level than Torah learning (remember, David HaMelech asked God to consider reciting Tehillim to be on the same level as learning) but sitting with a good pierush and digging into the depth of the text might be acceptable.
DeleteThese are Kabbala restrictions which appeared after halacha. Thersx also a dispute whether Kabbalah can take over halacha.
DeleteAnd since when was Kabbalah for the layman?
Since Lubavitch and Philip Berg decided it was.
DeleteThe best answer I received about which takes precedence was "Remember that the Mechaber and the Rema knew kabbala. If they didn't pasken according to it, then it doesn't take precedence."
The problem today in our "frummer than thou" culture is that kaballah has taken on this "mehadrin" aspect. Yeah, you could learn Gemara but that's just so nigleh. You want to learn nistar, that's the real Torah. Yeah, you could follow the Shulchan Aruch but that's so minimal. The Zohar is where it's really at!
Until only a few years ago, the last generation of rabbonim were still saying that kabbalah is not for public consumption, and were critical at least of Philip S Berg (if not others) for bringing it to the layman. Now they are all doing it.
DeleteI used to say it's the neurosurgery of Judaism. Everyone knows there's a brain, lots of people know the name of the lobes, only a few know all the parts and only a handful have the skill to cut it open and put it back together again. It should be the same for kaballah but instead, every layman thinks an English translation of the Zohar and an anthology of the Arizal's writings is enough.
DeleteLubavitch use the argument that we need to use these tools as we have sunken so low.
DeleteSo presumably in the era of LGBTQ+ there are now youtube videos of zohar shiurim, as if it's ok to publicly teach on the internet
They also seem to assume that once you are a bonafide chassid, all those things that the Shulchan Aruch restricts to genuinely pious people are all right for them no matter what. How else to explain that they all put on Rabbeinu Tam tefillin?
DeleteThis raises a question, and a belief I once held, does Hashem want us to take on board endless chumras, extras to the point that it diminishes our livelihood. (Of course there are others who make a living from these things)
DeleteGod wants us to be holy. As Rambam explains at the beginning of Kedoshim, holiness is about limiting the material to the minimum and subjugating it to the needs of the spiritual. We eat but only to sustain ourselves so we can learn and perform mitzvos. We procreate in order to fulfill the commandment of pru'ing and revu'ing. We do all the animal things but for a holy purpose.
DeleteChumros might help in that role by distancing us from the physical but only for that reason.
Not making kiddush at all between 6 and 7 pm Leil Shabbos is an established minhag, regardless of whether our resident idiots haven't heard of it. There is a kulah to use white wine as the chashash is about Mars being prominent during that time and the midda of din, so using white wine is available as a solution
DeleteYes it's in sefer haminhogim and other well respected and established minhag seforim
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