That is one of the purest statements of rabbinic teaching I have ever seen. You also have to realize that the rabbis emphasized that there must be no worldly gain associated with learning. They believed that any rewards you get in this world will detract, or even subtract, from what you get in the next world. There are many stories of someone praying for a miracle, receiving it, and then praying for the miracle to be undone when they realize that they will receive less in the world to come. This second miracle is seen as greater than the first one they prayed for. The result was a deep belief in learning for its own sake, unconnected to any reward (but they could get quite amusing when speculating about reward in the next world).
Learning and gathering knowledge is useless unless applied in daily experience.
I see plenty of academics but where are the miracles, signs and wonders promised by Jesus as the fruits of this knowledge? Where is the POWER promised to the true disciples?
"One who teaches higher knowledge and does not practice its wisdom is like a secret adulteress whose swelling condition betrays her shame. Such a person who does not act on the precepts he knows, will be shamed by the Lord before all creation on the Day of Judgement. Al-Ghazali, Revival of the Religious Sciences
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That is one of the purest statements of rabbinic teaching I have ever seen. You also have to realize that the rabbis emphasized that there must be no worldly gain associated with learning. They believed that any rewards you get in this world will detract, or even subtract, from what you get in the next world. There are many stories of someone praying for a miracle, receiving it, and then praying for the miracle to be undone when they realize that they will receive less in the world to come. This second miracle is seen as greater than the first one they prayed for. The result was a deep belief in learning for its own sake, unconnected to any reward (but they could get quite amusing when speculating about reward in the next world).
Leon Zitzer
Learning and gathering knowledge is useless unless applied in daily experience.
I see plenty of academics but where are the miracles, signs and wonders promised by Jesus as the fruits of this knowledge? Where is the POWER promised to the true disciples?
"One who teaches higher knowledge and does not practice its wisdom is like a secret adulteress whose swelling condition betrays her shame. Such a person who does not act on the precepts he knows, will be shamed by the Lord before all creation on the Day of Judgement.
Al-Ghazali, Revival of the Religious Sciences
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