Joodse traditie als permanent leren

133.

die tot praxis leidt is een doelmatig tegengif tegen het gif van de 'yezer ha-ra':

'Ebenso sprach der Heilige, gepriesen sei er, zu Jisraél: Meine Kinder, ich habe den bösen Trieb erschaffen, und ich habe die Tora als Mittel gegen ihn erschaffen; wenn ihr euch mit der Tora befasset, so werdet ihr nicht in seine Hand ausgeliefert . . . und wenn ihr euch mit der Tora nicht befasset, so werdet ihr in seine Hand ausgeliefert . . . '. Door permanent te leren, door dagelijks de Torah te bestuderen, wordt leren een gewoonte, een tweede natuur, een 'instinct' en het is dit 'driftmatig' leren dat met succes de strijd tegen de 'yezer ha-ra' kan aanbinden. De joodse traditie leert, dat leren een hartstocht kan zijn en hartstochten kan reguleren.

KORTE EXCURSIE : 'Whoever has completed successfully the

education for truthfulness toward himself, is permanently immune

against the danger of immorality, even if his standard of morality

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should differ in some ways from what is customary in society'. LANGERE EXCURSIE : 'High standards of honesty mean that one has a conscience about what one says and what one believes. They mean that one takes some trouble to determine what speaks for and against a view, what the alternatives are, what speaks for and against each, and what alternatives are preferable on these grounds. This is the heart of rationality, the essence of scientific method, and the meaning of intellectual integrity. I shall call it the canon. (. . . ) The canon takes the form of a series of imperatives. These imperatives define the essence of scientific method. But the practice of a method can become a habit or, as people sometimes put it, speaking rather loosely, it can become "instinctive". And virtues are habits. They can be acquired and developed by practice. Confronted with a proposition, view, belief, hypothesis, conviction - one's own or another person's - those with high standards of honesty apply the canon, which commands us to ask seven questions: (l) What does this mean? (2) What speaks for it and (3) against it? (4) What alternatives are available ? (5) What speaks for and (6) against each? And (7) what alternatives are most plausible in the light of