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11.9.22

 In the approach of the Gra there is an emphasis on the "Seven Wisdoms". Rav Baruch of Shkolev was a disciple of the Gra who wrote a small translation of Euclid and in his introduction quotes the Gra: ''Anyone who lacks any knowledge of the Seven Wisdoms will lack in understanding of Torah a hundred fold.''

Bur what can this mean? The Seven Wisdoms is a well known concept of the Middle Ages. [grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music ]The emphasis on learning them is found in some rishonim  besides the Gra, but certainly not all.

[My approach to this is to emphasize Mathematics, and Physics but Astronomy I feel not ready for until I have a good grasp on General Relativity, QFT and String Theory. For the ultimate test of Strings will have to be in the distribution of the stars and galaxies.

[Even if Physics is hard, I figure that with the approach mentioned in the Gemara about review 400 times, it must get clearer after a few hundred times.[That is the story about the amora who used to review each lesson with his disciple 400 times. Then once his student was not concentrating so that amora reviewed the lesson another 400 times.]]