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5.9.16

What should be one's education?






The kind of Seven Wisdoms (Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy) that were mentioned by the Gra. In the introduction to the translation of Euclid by Rav Baruch of Shkolev a disciple of the Gra he quotes the Gra as saying "To the degree one lacks knowledge in any one of the seven wisdoms, to that degree there will be  a lack of knowledge of Torah."
Then  there is the Rambam's view of Physics and Metaphysics as being part of Torah itself.

[It was in fact awareness of the view of the Rambam and the Gra that encouraged me to take the step to start this kind of learning after I had  been against it as I was part of the religious world.] See also the Obligations of the Heart חובות לבבות in the Introduction where he brings the seven wisdoms and also the second chapter.

Here I am dealing just with logistics. But having dealt with that then the question comes up, what is the effect of  a liberal education, or what should be the results? What effect does it have on one's soul?
Why is simply sitting and learning Torah not enough? Or is it enough?


Appendix: I mentioned before that my basic approach is Math, Physics, Gemara Musar, Music Survival skills. [As you can see I have left out a lot of the liberal arts and included a few things. Also I did not include what the Rambam meant by Metaphysics-- that is the set of books of Aristotle by that name. The reason is I am not so thrilled about philosophy.]