Centrality of Learning

The following is the text of an address I delivered at the 1994 Arts and Sciences Honors Day of Recognition, when outstanding graduating seniors in the College of Arts and Sciences are honored.

The Hebrew word "Torah" usually refers to the Five Books of Moses; sometimes to the entire Jewish Bible; sometimes to the many volumes of commentary on the Bible; and sometimes to the Biblical legal system. Torah also may refer to the central activities of a University, namely, learning and teaching. Those of you about to graduate have, I hope, absorbed among your most important lessons the need for life-long learning. We know that much of what we have taught you will soon be obsolete, to be replaced by better instruments, better software, better theories and insights; we also know that much of what you have learned here has lasting value. If you have learned one of your most important lessons, namely, how to learn, then you are well prepared for your life-long task of learning and teaching, of casting off the obsolete while cherishing the eternal, of pursuing Torah.

Make no mistake about it -- you are all teachers, whether or not you choose to earn a living teaching. You teach by the high standards of achievement you set for your peers and by the example you set in your personal conduct. Most of you will be parents, the most influential teachers your children ever meet.

The importance of learning and teaching is stressed at the very beginning of the Torah:

In the beginning G-d created the heaven and the earth. Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of G-d hovered over the face of the waters. And G-d said "Let there be light" -- and there was light. And G-d saw the light, that it was good; and G-d divided the light from the darkness. And G-d call the light Day, and the darkness He called Night; and there was evening and there was morning, one day.

(Genesis I, 1-5)

Magnificent words, of course, but what do they have to do with learning and teaching? Listen to the Midrash, a collection of commentary, legends, and investigations into the meaning of Torah:

.... G-d concealed this superlative light from the first day, and on the fourth day He provided the world with light from the sun and moon. Why did G-d conceal the original light? He said, "The wicked people of the future ... will not be worthy to bear the intense light created on the first day." He therefore hid it for the righteous in the next world ... (who) will be rewarded with enjoyment of the light of the Shechina (Divine Presence) for having studied Torah, which is compared to light.

(The Midrash Says, Rabbi Moshe Weissman, ed.)

On the sixth day of the Creation, the Torah relates:

And G-d said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." And G-d created man in His own image, in the image of G-d created He him; male and female created He them. And G-d blessed them; and G-d said unto them: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth." (Gen. I, 26-28)

The Midrash comments:

(G-d) said, "The human being ... will possess the intellect necessary to comprehend Creation and serve the Master of the Universe like one of the angels. His mind will distinguish him as a human being." (op. cit.)

I like to couple this teaching with another I learned as a child, namely that the Torah contains no word for "religion," but rather it teaches and legislates a complete way of life in which there are priorities in study, but no distinction between "sacred" and "secular."

In Jewish thought, the notion of eternity has greater expression in the passing of a tradition of learning and practice from generation to generation, than in the idea of eternal life for the individual soul. It is the eternity of this tradition that the Psalmist had in mind while writing

The dead praise not the L-rd, nor those who descend to silence,
But we will praise the L-rd from this time and forever,
Hallelujah!

This idea is echoed in a Holocaust tale: In one of the death camps, a large group of prisoners was force-marched to the gas chambers, knowing what awaited. Facing their guards, they chanted an old Yiddish refrain:

We shall outlive you!

Listen to Elie Wiesel on the Roman occupation of Judea:

The second century of our era had brought cruel measures against the Jewish population of Judea.... In Rome, the emperors regarded the oppression of the Jewish people as a political priority.... Whoever taught Torah, whoever studied Torah, was condemned to death.... Rome forbade study? The Jewish people studied nevertheless. The teachers were put in prison? They went on teaching inside the prisons. At the risk of their lives, the Masters met with their disciples and taught them to become Masters in turn. (Sages and Dreamers)

It was during this period that the Pirkei Avot, or "Ethics of the Fathers," was compiled. A short collection of pedagogy of the leading scholars of the era, Pirkei Avot is concerned with major themes in the life of a community, among them, education. Consider the following quotes:

Ch. I, v. 4:  Make your home a regular meeting place for the
              scholars; sit eagerly at their feet and drink
              thirstily their words.

Ch. I, v. 6:  Select a master-teacher for yourself; acquire
              a colleague for study; ...

Ch. I (13):   ... knowledge not increased is knowledge
              decreased; one who does not study deserves to
              die...

Ch. II (2):   The study of Torah is commendable when
              combined with a gainful occupation ... study
              alone without an occupation leads to idleness,
              and ultimately to sin....

Ch. II (5):   ... do not say "When I have leisure, I will
              study," for you may never have leisure.

Ch. II (9):   If you have studied much Torah, take no
              special credit for it since your were created
              for this purpose.

Ch. IV (1):   Who is wise?  One who learns from everyone ...
              Who is mighty?  One who conquers his evil impulse...
              Who is rich?  One who is happy with his lot...
              Who is honored?  One who honors his fellows...

Ch. IV (15):  The dignity of your student should be as
              precious to you as your own; the dignity of
              your colleague should be as precious to you as
              your reverence for your teacher; the reverence
              for your teacher should be as great as your
              reverence for G-d.

Ch. V (9):    ...
              The wise person does not speak in the presence
              of one who is wiser;
              He does not interrupt his friend's words;
              He does not reply in haste;
              He asks what is relevant, he answers to the
              point;
              He replies to questions in orderly sequence;
              Of what he has not heard, he says, "I have not
              heard";
              He admits to the truth;
              The opposite of these typify the clod.

Ch. VI (6):   ... Torah ... is acquired through 48 virtues
              .... [48th] by quoting one's source.  From
              this we learn that a person who quotes his
              source brings deliverance to the world, as it
              is written, "And Esther spoke to the king, in
              the name of Mordecai." (Esther 2:22)

Finally, I mention the following quote from Pirkei Avot:

Ch. I (2):    The world depends on three things -- on Torah,
              on service to G-d, and on deeds of lovingkindness.

The Vincentians and the Daughters of Charity teach that, also. Remember them, and Niagara University, well for it.

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