Talmudic thinking and secular education

 
To a modern man, the ability to think talmudically comes with effort. Conditioned by the scientific outlook, we tend to think of many concepts in a very different way than the Talmud, and without training, we see its discussions as peculiar and strange.

This Shabbos I was studying the last few sygyos in the first chapter of Chullin. Among them is a discussion of whether Temed, a mixture of left over grape skins and pits, with water added, before it is re-fermented to produce additional wine, can be purified thorugh "hashaka". Without getting technical, water, but not wine, can be given the halachic status of rainwater and be used as a mikvah, through this act of touching a body of an exisitng rainwater mikvah. Hashaka is effective because it is "planting (zriyah)". The comparison of making two bodies of water touch and planting is effortless and axiomatic in the Talmudic worldview and does not require farther derivation or defense.

The sugya implies that the best "hashaka" is when two bodies of water touch from the top and not from the sides. Apparently, this is predicated on the act of planting which is also performed from the top and not from the side. Farthermore, it is the act of planting that constitutes zriya, not mixing and not necessarily intermingling of waters. So also, many poskim hold that the Shabbos violation of planting occurrs as soon as a seed is placed into the ground, even if it is later removed and never actually sprouts (See Iglei Tal in the introduction), while others disagree.

To the scientific mind, it is very curious to call the mere act of placing a seed in the ground, "planting". We see planting as a process which involves surrounding the seed with earth, watering and tending it in the appropriate conditions, and then producing from it a growth. Because we see the process as a totality of growing, we necessarily see the linguistic content of the word "planting" in a much wider context. Chazal, instead, looked at what one sees when planting takes place and they saw a seed being placed into the ground, that is what they saw, and that is what they saw. As such, connecting two bodies of water is the same as placing a seed into the ground.

This example argues for the proposition that the only mind capable of immediately and effortlessly interpreting the Torah is a mind unaffected by secular knowledge. One would  ask,  "Why is more knowledge worse"? The answer is that Talmudic thinking is predicated on such a different way of seeing so many processes and facts that an over-educated mind is at a serious disadvantage, for it must first free itself from its pre-conceptions and then twist itself into what is a new and foreign way of perceiving relaity, whereas a mind never exposed to secular knowledge, does not.

I often wondered why Talmud so often offers as a way of seeing something, what it calls "salka daatach amrinan (you may first think that we say..)", and than tells that, no, "kamashma lan" that that is the correct way. But... it never proves it. What then is the purpose of the exercize - just tell us what the correct way is right away.

However, there is a purpose for the exercize! It is to model the Talmudic reasoning for us by example. This is how expertise is gained - through solving various problems and the subconscious acquisition of pattern recognition. Experts often cannot prove why they make a particular decision and why they select one option among several and there are always argments for either position. It is through modeling that experts are made. Similarly, this is why it is important to acquire a broad and wide backround in learning, what Talmudists call "filling the belly with Shas and poskim"(see Pesachim 68b).

Note that I am not arguing for the superiority of one or another way of looking at the natural world. I am simply saying that for an aspiring Talmudist, secular knowledge may, in fact, be an impediment to quick and accurate understanding of talmudic sugyos. It may be a advantage in understanding Aggada.. but that's another discussion.

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