David Rinde- path to Mitzvos # 6

The following is an "anatomy of Torah" by David Rinde that he asked me to comment on. I asked him if we could post it, because it will be a very powerful tool in our development as "golems". There is an incompleteness in the principles that is extremely useful to reflect on as another step in moving toward the palace.

We were talking about the Rambam’s division of Torah into Torah SheBichtav (TSB), Torah SheBaal Peh (TSBP), and Talmud (T). I had never understood what was what; I kind of spaced out last year for this/was confused enough that other points occupied my thoughts at the time so that I never really understood the anatomy. However, I think I picked up more than I had thought, because over the course of my conversation with Johny I was able to put together a unified theory to explain what all the parts are, and consequently what a person should be trying to do with and between them.

The model I emerged with says that TSB is comprised of philosophical principles and mitzvos, TSBP is the study of analyzing these mitzvos and seeing their Chumash principles on a basic level, and T is a more advanced study of the mitzvos (and the principles that emerge from them) by studying the mitzvos in their more refined form as expressed through their specific halachik definition.

Other benefits and priorities are attached to these as well, and a person should not treat them as strictly linear in progression, though there should be a gradual movement starting with TSB to TSBP to T, with all the expected overlap and back and forth. Examples of some other benefits of studying halachah (i.e. T) even before reaching the level of this kind of advanced analysis of mitzvos would include 1) practically knowing what to do to technically fulfill your chiyuv, 2) amassing a cache of facts for the advanced analysis just as one amassed the facts of miztvos before engaging in the more basic TSBP analysis of miztvos, and 3) training the mind to perform all kinds of analysis from the most basic to the most advanced.

My response:

כג כִּי נֵר מִצְוָה וְתוֹרָה אוֹר וְדֶרֶךְ חַיִּים תּוֹכְחוֹת מוּסָר

Dear David,

I agree with the unified theory you presented in this piece, in principle. I say in principle because, in its current state, your theory lacks the dimension needed for application in a real world engagement of the world. This difficulty is,of course, a typical one it corresponds to the method of teaching used in all skilled crafts. The theoretical principles grasped by the eye of the soul are taught in one way, the practical principles that identify principles as they present in real world entities are taught in another way.

In medicine for example , your "anatomy" is of the theoretical kind-the medical school in the textbook. There would be a representation of a body with a bunch of names attached that the students would learn to assign formulaic names to. We can hear the voice of the lecture- this is the liver-it is part of the digestive system. Its function is to remove toxins from the blood stream.

As true as this school-presentation of anatomy is, in principle, it lacks the experience of real world bodies needed for application. There is a distinct amount of seeing actual bodies in hospitals, becoming experienced in the phenomenon of how bodily systems present themselves, that is needed to make these "principles" as they present themselves in real world environments. In addition to formulated principles, the experienced doctor has a map that allows the eye of the soul to naturally and quickly classify the parts of the world it confronts through the eyes of the body. This experience of seeing principles as they are actually embedded in real world bodies is a kind of memory, a carefully crafted memory that lends itself to classification of bodies in real-time.

It is this distinction in the two aspects of the development of Chochma awareness that your anatomy fails to emphasize David. It is this understanding of the need to develop an expert classification memory that explains the division of Torah into a set of legal formulae and a literary companion reader. It is the role of the literary reader to enable the principle to be grasped as they exist embedded in real world objects recognized by the senses. It is this type of study which allows yesodos / first principles (what you call "philosophy") and a taxonomy or classification system to arise.

The first principles are to be found primarily in perek 1-2 of Brayshees, I will identify them in another post,perhaps the next one. The classification extends from seeing mitzvot in bichtav through baal peh as case studies or "Mishnayot". The final combination of principles and classification into a synthesized thought system is Talmud.