The Rambam has an idea of what constitutes the Oral Law that gives some support to the idea that learning Physics and Meta-Physics is an actual obligation.
And it is important to know whether this is an obligation or not because of the concept of Bitul Torah.
And the idea of Bitul Torah is that it is not just a mitzvah to learn Torah but it is a sin not to learn Torah. ביטול תורה כנגד כולם. That is we have a statement from that sages talking about the worst types of sin (גילוי עריות שפיכות דמים עבודה זרה) a person can do and then they and on the end of this discussion that not learning Torah during a time period when one could be learning Torah is the worst of all sins.
In the Rambam's Laws of Talmud Torah about how one should divide his day, the Rambam says הענינים הנקראים פרדס הם בכלל הגמרא "The things called Pardes are in the category of learning Talmud"
And that obviously refers to what he said at the beginning of Mishna Torah the the subject matter discussed there is called "Pardes." [Orchard] That means the Rambam understood "Pardes" to means Physics and Metaphysics and he considered learning these two subjects as a part of the mitzvah of learning Torah. [There is no surprise here. The Rambam in the Guide says what the sages means by the work of Creation and the work of the Divine Chariot the Greeks called Physics and Metaphysics. And if you put his ideas about this in Guide together you get the same conclusion]
I looked into the history of Pultusk, Poland.[http://yizkor.nypl.org/index.php?id=2548] And I can see that the idea of public school [secular studies] was frowned on by the some religious people. But regular Jews did not share that attitude. For example when my grandparents came to the USA they sent my Dad to public school and later he majored in Mechanical Engineering at Cal Tech worked on almost every top secret project that was around, the U-2, the Orion, SDI, etc.
Clearly there were and still are plenty of Jews that think Science and Math are an important part of Torah study like the Rambam.
But as far as things are today both ultra orthodox religious schools and also public schools in the USA are extremely bad. If I had the choice I would home school my children in Torah and natural sciences. And if that was not an option I would send my children to some kind of Religious Zionist school like Bnei Akiva [or whatever they are called in the USA]
And it is important to know whether this is an obligation or not because of the concept of Bitul Torah.
And the idea of Bitul Torah is that it is not just a mitzvah to learn Torah but it is a sin not to learn Torah. ביטול תורה כנגד כולם. That is we have a statement from that sages talking about the worst types of sin (גילוי עריות שפיכות דמים עבודה זרה) a person can do and then they and on the end of this discussion that not learning Torah during a time period when one could be learning Torah is the worst of all sins.
In the Rambam's Laws of Talmud Torah about how one should divide his day, the Rambam says הענינים הנקראים פרדס הם בכלל הגמרא "The things called Pardes are in the category of learning Talmud"
And that obviously refers to what he said at the beginning of Mishna Torah the the subject matter discussed there is called "Pardes." [Orchard] That means the Rambam understood "Pardes" to means Physics and Metaphysics and he considered learning these two subjects as a part of the mitzvah of learning Torah. [There is no surprise here. The Rambam in the Guide says what the sages means by the work of Creation and the work of the Divine Chariot the Greeks called Physics and Metaphysics. And if you put his ideas about this in Guide together you get the same conclusion]
I looked into the history of Pultusk, Poland.[http://yizkor.nypl.org/index.php?id=2548] And I can see that the idea of public school [secular studies] was frowned on by the some religious people. But regular Jews did not share that attitude. For example when my grandparents came to the USA they sent my Dad to public school and later he majored in Mechanical Engineering at Cal Tech worked on almost every top secret project that was around, the U-2, the Orion, SDI, etc.
Clearly there were and still are plenty of Jews that think Science and Math are an important part of Torah study like the Rambam.
But as far as things are today both ultra orthodox religious schools and also public schools in the USA are extremely bad. If I had the choice I would home school my children in Torah and natural sciences. And if that was not an option I would send my children to some kind of Religious Zionist school like Bnei Akiva [or whatever they are called in the USA]
