Pe'ah 015

Shel Schiffman wrote:

I'd like to ask also about …"Torah lishmah," apparently universally translated as "Torah for its own sake." On reflection, I find that I really don't know what that could possibly mean… I'd like to ask if another translation is possible: "Torah for its (proper) purpose." And what is that purpose? It is indicated in Rav's dictum,"Lo nitnu hamitzvot ella l'tzaref et habriyot." [The mitzvot were given to refine people – SR] If this understanding of Torah lishmah is untenable, as I suppose it must be, since I find it nowhere, I would appreciate being pointed to an explanation, not just a statement, of the usual understanding, and why that should be a Jewish value.

(See the previous shiur for the full text of Shel's message.)

I respond:

Shel is correct, I think, when he rejects the idea that Torah lishmah could indicate that the mitzvot were given for a certain purpose. I think that the best translation of Torah lishmah would be something like "altruistic study of Torah".

Rambam, in his Mishnah Commentary gives what is probably the best account of Torah lishmah. His account is incidental to his discussion there on motivation for Torah observance: why do people obey Torah, and what are the possible consequences of disobedience? Actually, these two questions are so closely linked that they may be considered to be one, and they are dealt with in a masterful manner by Rambam in the long and fascinating preamble to his commentary on the first mishnah of Chapter Ten of Tractate Sanhedrin. First of all he introduces us to the famous hypothesis, that God rewards those who keep the commandments and punishes those that transgress them. He then describes several concepts about the nature of reward/punishment (for reward and punishment are merely different sides of the same coin) that were prevalent in his age – and are still very prevalent today! Firstly, he writes, some believe in Heaven and Hell – that the obedient go to Heaven and the disobedient go to Hell. Others believe in a physical resurrection of the dear departed – that the good will be ressurrected and that the bad will not. Yet others believe that worldly success is a sign of obedience and that disobedience brings about its opposite. Others yet again claim that the obedient will merit living in the Messianic Age whereas the disobedient will not. Rambam also introduces a fifth opinion which is an amalgam of all the previous opinions: we are awaiting the Messiah who will resurrect the dead, we shall all then enter paradise and live happily ever after.

At this point in his discussion Rambam appears to forsake his topic abruptly, for he begins to discuss a question connected with education. What is the real purpose of education? That is, why do we want our children to learn, and why do we want to learn ourselves? The answer is surely self-evident: we learn in order to gain knowledge. But that is a tautology: we learn in order to gain learning! In other words, we learn in order to learn! The real purpose of learning is learning, it is itself its own purpose. A child, however, cannot appreciate the worth of learning for its own sake. We might tell a child that if he learns well we will give him a sweet, or a star on a chart, or a bicycle (or we might threaten to stand him in the corner if he doesn't learn properly) – depending on the child's age and the importance of the learning in the eyes of the adult.

Whenever I have taught this passage of Rambam in the classroom or lecture hall I have always paused at this point in order to ask my students whether they perceive a connection between this discussion on education and the preceding discussion. Usually the matter needs some clarification, but I feel that here I have so presented Rambam's case that the connection is reasonably obvious.

We have a perfectly valid objective for learning: learning itself. We study in order to gain knowledge, we learn in order to learn. Because the immature are not motivated by such a consideration we have invented artificial objectives: a sweet, a star on a chart, a bicycle, a report card, matriculation, a university degree, a doctorate … (Rambam himself has said earlier in his dissertation that "when the average person states his reason for learning it is usually an illusion").

What, then, is the purpose of observing Torah? Obviously, the corrollary must be that the purpose of observing Torah should be observing Torah! We should observe Torah for its own sake. If the collective wisdom of Israel throughout the ages has perceived something to be the will of God, that should be the reason for obeying it! But, because spiritually immature people are not sufficiently motivated by such a consideration, throughout the ages we have invented "artificial" objectives: Heaven, Ressurrection, La Dolce Vita, the Messianic Age – or all of them collectively, or their opposites.

After presenting such a lofty theme Rambam does a backtrack: that highest motivation, Torah for Torah's sake, is a very difficult one for the "ordinary man in the street", if not impossible. He who comprehends that the best reason for observing the mitzvot of the Torah is the very fact that they are the mitzvot of the Torah has reached the level of saintliness and spiritual sophistication associated with the Patriarch Abraham who loved God for no ulterior motive. Rambam suggests that lesser mortals must be permitted to do right for the wrong reasons. But here we must ask: could it not be that in our modern age the highest motivation is the best motivation, and that it is well within the intellectual ability of today's "ordinary man in the street"? Indeed, surely it is the invented "artificial" objectives (Heaven, Resurrection, La Dolce Vita, the Messianic Age) when presented as motivational aids to religious conformity that now have the opposite effect.

Those who study with me these mishnayot stand to gain no benefit whatsoever except the benefit of having learned some Torah. In this sense RMSG is Torah lishmah. If one studies Torah in order to achieve something other than Torah knowledge (a rabbinical diploma, collegial kudos, halakhic standing and so forth) this is not Torah lishmah. In Judaism study of Torah simply in order to know it and understand it is a very high value.