Bitul Torah. [That is the idea that when one can learn Torah he must do so.]
Bitul Torah is a very different idea than the California idea of the supreme importance of having fun.
So is learning Math and Physics Bitul Torah? Well obviously not if it is for the purpose of making a living. But the question is if they are included in "learning Torah". [But I am not very happy with this approach since not everything one can do to make a living is OK. It has to worthwhile in itself.]
The accepted answer among many rishonim would be that they are not. Nahmanides [Ramban] and his whole school of thought would have said no. This shows up in later books of Musar also.
However there were some rishonim that said yes. Rambam, Benjamin the Doctor author of Maalot HaMidot}, and Ibn Pakuda.
I have thought about then the question that comes up often abut the fact that Math and Physics are hard. On one hand you have "derech Girsa" saying the words in order from the beginning to the end and then review. That is however only one part of learning. Learning I think always has two parts, bekiut and Iyun. [(1) fast, (2) in depth].
So what would the in depth part be? Clearly review, but what method of review would work? I recall at the Mir I used to try to take every section of what ever I was learning like the Pnei Yehoshua and go over it ten times or more. That seems about the best way to do in depth learning.
The ten times review and go on I heard first in Shar Yashuv of Rav Shelomo Freifeld. Later at the Mir in NY I heard about this concept from others. But I think in stead of going on it makes sense to go back page by page. Then times a page then the previous page and then the previous.
Bitul Torah is a very different idea than the California idea of the supreme importance of having fun.
So is learning Math and Physics Bitul Torah? Well obviously not if it is for the purpose of making a living. But the question is if they are included in "learning Torah". [But I am not very happy with this approach since not everything one can do to make a living is OK. It has to worthwhile in itself.]
The accepted answer among many rishonim would be that they are not. Nahmanides [Ramban] and his whole school of thought would have said no. This shows up in later books of Musar also.
However there were some rishonim that said yes. Rambam, Benjamin the Doctor author of Maalot HaMidot}, and Ibn Pakuda.
I have thought about then the question that comes up often abut the fact that Math and Physics are hard. On one hand you have "derech Girsa" saying the words in order from the beginning to the end and then review. That is however only one part of learning. Learning I think always has two parts, bekiut and Iyun. [(1) fast, (2) in depth].
So what would the in depth part be? Clearly review, but what method of review would work? I recall at the Mir I used to try to take every section of what ever I was learning like the Pnei Yehoshua and go over it ten times or more. That seems about the best way to do in depth learning.
The ten times review and go on I heard first in Shar Yashuv of Rav Shelomo Freifeld. Later at the Mir in NY I heard about this concept from others. But I think in stead of going on it makes sense to go back page by page. Then times a page then the previous page and then the previous.
