The Religious Significance of Secular Studies According to Rabbi Yosef Hayyim (1835-1909)

A virtual event presentation by Professor Zvi Zohar

The event was co-sponsored by Congregation Or Tzion

About the Event:

In ancient times, some rabbis held that since one is commanded to study Torah day and night (Joshua 1:8), other intellectual realms could be acquired only ‘when it is neither day nor night.’ An exception could be made only for learning a practical profession, enabling one to earn a living. (See, e.g., JT Pe’ah 1:1).

Following in the spirit of those ancient scholars, many East European Rabbis in recent centuries were against secular studies for boys and men and viewed such studies as antithetical to the true Torah. So, too, some rabbis permitted secular studies as a practical concession enabling one to gain a livelihood.

Rabbi Yosef Hayyim was one of the greatest rabbis in the entire world in the half-century leading up to WWI. He was an all-round scholar – Halakhist, Kabbalistic, interpreter of Aggada and Midrash, composer of religious poetry, and famous for his lively and compelling sermons. Nevertheless, many people have not heard of him, as he was a Sephardic/Oriental rabbi who spent his entire life in Baghdad. In addition, many people imagine Sephardic Jews (and rabbis) to be simple, naïve traditionalists – as opposed to the cleverness and sophistication of European/Ashkenazic Jews.

However, it was specifically the ‘Sephardic/Oriental’ Rabbi Yosef Hayyim who strongly advocated that Jewish schools offer a curriculum offering both Torah and ‘general’ studies in tandem, not because general studies are needed to earn a living but because of their inherent intellectual and spiritual religious value.

In this session, we will study (in translation) the original texts of Rabbi Yosef Hayyim on this topic and discuss the significance of his views.

*Source Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c0bJtwOQ0FWHA-G_cf8wND9XqiOY2Lyt/view?usp=sharing

About the Speaker:

Zvi Zohar is a senior research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute. He is the Chauncey Stillman Professor of Sephardic Law and Ethics at Bar-Ilan University, where he teaches in the Faculties of Law and Jewish Studies and is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Law, Religion and State. At Shalom Hartman Institute, he heads the Alan and Loraine Fischer Family Center for Halakha.

Professor Zohar’s main area of research is the history and development of halakha from the earliest times to the present. He has a special interest in the halakhic writings of Sephardic and Mizrahi rabbis in modern times. Professor Zohar has published more than 100 books and scholarly articles in Hebrew, English, French, and German.

His most recent book in English, Rabbinic Creativity in the Modern Middle East, was published in 2013 by the Hartman Institute’s Kogod Library of Judaic Studies in conjunction with Bloomington Academic Press.