הל' תלמוד תורה פ"א- פ"ג, הרצאה 4 (1968)

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Pukhovitzer’s Concept of Torah Lishmah (1968)

The study of Torah is one of the most fundamental commandments in Judaism; it outweighs all the other precepts. The question of what should be the motivation for such study depends upon how one defines the talmudic concept of Torah lishmah - usually translated as “Torah for its own sake.” The definition of this teleology of study is, in turn, usually contingent upon one’s general orientation to Jewish values: the role of the intellect as against ethical and ritual performances, inwardness vis-a-vis external acts, and so on. Moreover, the degree to which one insists upon pure motivation, i.e., study lishmah, depends upon the significance one attaches to the study of Torah as such: the more one esteems the act of study, the less one is disposed to demand lishmah, however one interprets the term; and the less one’s relative emphasis on the study of Torah, the more likely is his insistence upon lishmah. (3) The various definitions of the term Torah lishmah can generally be grouped in three categories, with the understanding that they are not mutually exclusive:In this context, it is interesting to analyze the writings on the study of Torah lishmah by R. Yehudah Leib Pukhovitzer, a late seventeenth-century rabbi and preacher whose books reflect the kabbalistically oriented piety of his times. (10) As a representative of this period, his works tell us something about the religious spirit and views of seventeenth-century Polish Jewry and about its religious and educational institutions and problems. This analysis is made particularly necessary because of some recent assertions about Puknovitzer’s concept of Torah lishmah which this writer considers highly questionable. Relying mostly on kabbalistic sources, Pukhovitzer fully subscribes to the functional definition of Torah lishmah: He who studies lishmah merits both this world and the world-to-come, as is written in the Zohar. . . . The reason for this is that Torah (i.e., study) without [the performance of] the commandme…

Torah Study General Jewish Thought Chasidim & Mitnagdim

Rambam, Lecture 5 (1968)

Persevaranain Study 1) Read פ”ג ה”ו 2) RH and נצי”ב on עמל; התמשדה–משמר 3) RH on ידיעה⩽למו; If Plato on being/becoming Quon on supernatural assistanot ת”ת; contract Itaoinim. Thus: LSD…II. Motives: פ”ג ה”ה: תחילת דינו של אדם אינו נדון אלא על התלמוד (קבעת עתים…עסקת שפו”ר, שוות ונחת – אמונה)

General Jewish Thought

Rambam, Lecture 7 (1968)

Beginning of idolatry – Jewish anthropology: (a) At first – Adam: monotheism; (b) Then – ה״א פ״א and complete from full text – stage 1: intermediacy; (c) Then – ה״ג – (full text!) – stage 2: worship directed to objects; stage 3: object itself now endowed with autonomy; stage 4: God forgotten; fetishism.

General Jewish Thought