Seven hundred years have passed since Aba Mori Hayarchi of
Lunil in southern France turned to the gedolei hador
with the request that they join his battle against the
tendency of many worthy Jews from Provence towards secular
studies. Some of his contemporaries had become convinced of
the possibility of combining the study of foreign wisdoms and
philosophies with Torah study. The gedolim considered
this approach a real danger for the continuation of Torah
studies and fought it tooth and nail.
France, the seat of Torah in the time of the Rishonim
for several centuries, was also the location where the
sitra achra sought to attract young talmidei
chachomim to delve in secular studies, arguing that it
was possible to combine them legitimately with Torah
studies.
The objections of rabbonim such as Aba Mori had wide
repercussions. He turned to the godol hador of French
and German Jewry, the Rosh, who had been exiled to Spain
because of persecutions in Germany. The Rosh, in his reply,
suggested that a "meeting of gedolei Torah" be
convened to discuss ways of fighting this phenomenon. In 5065
(1305) a cheirem was indeed pronounced in Barcelona,
home of the Rashbo, against anyone who occupied himself with
Greek wisdom before the age of 25. The Rosh was one of the
signatories to this cheirem.
Almost seven hundred years later a leading godol of
our generation left his arba amos for that same
country in order to announce to the whole world that the
eternal Torah cannot be replaced and that it cannot dwell
together with secular wisdom and the aspiration for
"graduation certificates" and so on.
HaRav A. Y. L. Shteinman's journey to France, in which he
took with him his advanced years and arba amos of
yegias haTorah to wander to a foreign country in order
to convey the word of Hashem, strengthened the golden chain
of the transmission of Torah in its pure state, which has not
diminished even one iota over these seven centuries.
There is not and there never will be a different way of
learning Torah. Any attempt at crossbreeding within the
vineyard of Torah is doomed to failure. That is the message
HaRav Shteinman conveyed in France and comes back to us in
Eretz Yisroel like an echo countering any similar
thoughts and tendencies in that direction at home.
There is no room for nuances on this point. It is one of the
basic principles transmitted to us by our rabbonim, the
roshei yeshiva, past and present, and one of the means
of acquiring Torah; perhaps one of the most fundamental
ones.
Only this is the way of Torah. Only this way did
gedolim develop throughout the generations. All the
various attempts to create new models and joint frameworks of
"Torah umada" and so on failed miserably and the product they
came up with carries within it the unmistakable stamp of
forgery!
Even if it was necessary in the past to learn a trade for
reasons of parnossoh it was crystal clear that this
was a pragmatic necessity, and that there was no comparison
between that and the chochmas haTorah. The danger only
exists when such a comparison is made.
Here too some people pretend that the only purpose of gaining
a "graduation certificate" is for "practical" reasons in
order to be able "to get on in life," but in practice the
world of hierarchies and grades associated with this process
becomes a challenge Rachmono litzlan to the goal of
studying and toiling in Torah. Eventually Torah study is
replaced altogether by advanced secular studies and the
attainment of the sought-after bagrut certificate,
leaving the victim totally bereft of Torah knowledge and
omol haTorah.
However, the bigger danger stems from the stark contrast
between the Torah's way of thinking and the logic of secular
wisdom. Studying the two together results in false analogies,
which distort the meaning of a halocho and its
definitions.
The Rosh writes at length, in an interesting responsum, about
the fundamental difference between the rules of the Torah,
which are based on tradition and halocho leMoshe
miSinai, [which may] even [go] against the rules of
reasoning and logic, as opposed to secular disciplines, which
are based only on the intellectual aspect.
The Rosh had some pungent words to say about this topic in a
responsum addressed to a certain rov who argued that in the
context of a regulation relating to marriage, the relevant
issue in matters of interpretation was the intention of the
writer as opposed to the Torah's interpretation, where that
was given. (Shut HaRosh, klal 55). In his reply the
Rosh related to a number of aspects connected to our topic
and he also talks about knowledge of specialized Arabic
(necessary for interpreting the regulation): "Although I do
not know your secular wisdom, blessed be Hashem for saving me
from this, for these disciplines lead a person astray from
the fear of Hashem and His Torah." This is the brief opinion
of the Rosh on the acquisition of secular knowledge.
Further on, the Rosh has some harsh words to say about the
chiddush of this rov: "As to your statement on the
intellect and religion, what can I say? Let not our Torah be
like your idle conversation. Should your wisdom of logic,
which all wise men of religion kept away from, be cited as
authority for creating rights and obligations, prohibitions
and permits? After all, those who invented these rules did
not believe in Moshe and in the righteous laws and
halochos that were handed down by him in writing and
orally. How, then, can its proponents bring proof from them
for [interpreting] the laws of Moshe Rabbeinu o"h?
Thank G-d, as long as I am alive there is still a Torah
amongst the Jewish nation, and proof can still be brought
from the Mishna or the Talmud Bavli or
Yerushalmi, and it has not been necessary to bring
analogies in order to produce rulings, for the wisdom of
philosophy and the wisdom of Torah and its laws do not
correspond."
The Rosh sums up: "About this the chochom mikol odom
has said, `None that go to her return,' meaning that whoever
enters this wisdom first will not be able to go out of it and
enter the heart of the wisdom of Torah, for he will not be
able to dissociate himself from a natural wisdom to which he
has accustomed himself, since he will always be attracted to
it. And because of this he will not manage to understand the
wisdom of Torah, which guides our lives, for his heart will
always be in the natural wisdom and he will wish to compare
the two wisdoms, bringing proof from one to the other,
thereby distorting the law, for these two opposites are
rivals and cannot dwell together in one place!"
These are the harsh words of one of the rishonim whose
Torah the whole nation studies eagerly, and whose rulings
constitute one of the three pillars of halocho. Who
would dispute the severity of these matters?
If all this applies to an individual, it applies with even
more force to the founding of yeshivas, which have to be
based on absolutely holy foundations, since they are the
guarantee for the continued existence of the Jewish nation
and the transmission of the Torah to future generations.
HaRav Shach zt"l wrote about this in 5738 (1978) in a
letter to a professor who was interested in the character of
the yeshivas where no secular studies are taught
(Michtovim Umaamorim 281): "When there is an admixture
of secular studies, the true hashkofoh necessarily
changes and creates a distortion of the daas Torah
that has been transmitted to us from generation to
generation, so that the Torah would chas vesholom be
forgotten from the Jewish nation. Because when a thousand
enter the cheder [only] one will come out being fit to
make halachic rulings and complete in his Torah. But if that
one person who becomes a rov will not be complete and strong,
we have lost everything!"
This fundamental, clear hashkofoh is an unwavering
principle that has accompanied us throughout the generations,
from maamad Har Sinai and the kabolas haTorah,
Melochim, Shofetim, Nevi'im, Zekeinim, Tanoim, Amoroim,
Rabbonon savorai, Rishonim and Acharonim. That was
behind the fact that the journey for the strengthening of the
yeshiva world in Europe took place under the principle which
can be summed up: We have one Torah, let us guard it well
with a protective wall against the breaches of the time so
that the Torah will remain in its pure state without any
foreign admixtures whatsoever, until we will merit the
fulfillment of: "For out of Zion shall come forth Torah, and
the Word of Hashem from Yerushalayim."
