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4.3.15

Learning Physics and Math is a mitzvah, and possible even if you have zero talent

  I want to suggest doing the learning immediately when you wake up for as long as you can go. Say the words and go on. This was the path of learning for Torah and I have seen that it works for Physics and Math too.  


1) The major idea comes in fact from the Rambam in the Guide. People in general are not aware of this opinion of the Rambam because they don't learn the Guide. You can find the same opinion in all Musar books from Saadia Geon until Kabalah started in around 1260 C.E., (e.g. the book Maalot HaMidot from Binyamin  the doctor.). The Rambam could not have been more explicit about this.
2) But to be a working physicist you have to do this in your twenties. At around 40 the ability to sit and learn for long concentrated periods dries up. That means even if you have the privilege of having a Litvak yeshiva nearby, you still should go to collage in the afternoon.
3) And Physics and Math I consider as not just a part of Torah but essential aspects of it. Because to the anonymous commentary on the Rambam on the first four chapters of the Yad HaChazakah we see the mitzvot are to bring to Love and Fear of God. And to the Rambam learning Physics and Metaphysics is the key.
4) If you are after your twenties you can still do this but it is almost impossible to become a working Physicist. [I tend to look askew at people that  try to convince yeshiva students to learn Torah alone--or so called "Kiruv." Because they are almost guaranteeing that the people they convince to drop collage will not have the ability after that to learn a kosher profession. They will end up having to use the Torah to get money or depend on charity.]


5) So after this intro I want to suggest doing the learning immediately when you wake up for one hour. Say the words and go on. This was the path of learning fasr for Torah and I have seen that it works for Physics and Math too.  Cook coffee and tea in the same pot and drink them together. (That is what Bava Sali used to do.) I had a few other ways of learning that I hesitate to say because I think they slowed me down.
That is to say I found various methods but nothing compared with just saying the whole book from the beginning to the end and then doing it again. at least four times.