Joodse traditie als permanent leren

196.

((Content of Adult Study))

246,4. One must divide the time he devotes to learning into three parts: one-third for the Bible, one-third for the Mishnah and one-third for the Talmud. The study of the Bible includes all the twenty-four books; that of the Mishnah includes the oral Law and the explanations of the written Law; and the study of the Talmud comprehends a deep understanding of the whole Torah, its development, deductions and analogies, the principles by which it can be expounded, an appreciation of the basis of the commandments, the basis for prohibitions and sanctions, and all similar traditional learning. How can this division of time be arranged? If he be an artisan, working three hours at his trade and nine hours at Torah, let him devote three hours of the nine to the Bible, three hours to the Mishnah and three hours to the Talmud,. This should be the division of time in the early period of his study. But when he becomes more skilled in the Bible, and he does not need to study Bible and Mishnah so frequently, then let him study these at regular intervals so as not to forget anything of these fundamentals of learning, and let him devote all the rest of his time to the Talmud, so far as the breadth of his understanding and his power of concentration will allow.

Some say that through the study of the Babylonian Talmud, which is made up of Bible, Mishnah and Gemara, one fulfills his obligation towards all three divisions of study.

A man should only study Bible, Mishnah, Gemara and the legal literature which goes with them, for in this way he may attain both this world and the world to come, which he cannot do through the study of other branches of learning. But he is fully allowed to study other subjects, except if they be heretical. This study of other branches of learning is called by the Rabbis "Walking in Paradise". But a man should not "walk in Paradise" until he has partaken to the full (literally, "filled his stomach with the meat and wine") of a deep knowledge of Jewish learning and ritual.

Nor should he study Kabbala (the mystic philosophy of Judaism) until he is forty years of age. For this study one needs special sanctity, purity, zeal and godliness. Most of those who presume to enter into this branch of knowledge before their due time come to untimely grief through it.