Once we’ve established the “values” approach to learning, how does that impact how one practically goes about his mitzvah of talmud Torah? The Gemara in Avodah Zarah 19a writes that “Ein adam lamed ella b’makom shelibo chafetz” — “A person will only learn in an area that his heart desires.” After developing a solid grounding in the basics of each discipline — according to Chazal,¹ five years in Tanach, five years in Mishnayos, and either three or five years in Gemara —a student of Torah is directed to focus on the areas of learning to which he is drawn.

Rabbi Yehudah HaNasi sourced this directive in the opening lines of Tehillim: “Ki im b’Toras Hashem cheftzo” — a person is meant to engage with Torah from a place of cheftzo, his desires and interests.” Fascinatingly, the subsequent Gemara extracts from the second half of that same pasuk a well-known exposition: After a person invests time and effort into a sugya, it becomes his Torah, as opposed to Hashem’s: U’b’toraso, and in his Torah, yehegeh yomam valaylah, he will exert himself day and night. The juxtaposition of these ideas, both in the pasuk in Tehillim and in the Gemara, implies that by investigating the makom shelibo chafetz, the intersection of his passions and interests with Torah, he is able to acquire his cheilek in Torah, the unique contribution that only he is able to make.

Finding Your Portion

I remember the first time that I heard about the concept of a unique cheilek in Torah, I was actually more discouraged than inspired: What could I possibly add to the thousands of seforim lining the walls of every beis midrash, with thousands more in the otzar seforim upstairs? Everything significant to be said on every sugya must already be in writing somewhere; what’s the point of trying to be mechadesh?

This insight, that one’s cheilek can be found at the crossroads of Torah and one’s other interests, gave me renewed hope: Maybe there was something I could add to the discussion! Maybe it wouldn’t be by crafting a new mehalech or answering one of Rabbi Akiva Eiger’s tzarich iyun’s, but it could be by uncovering a new element of a sugya or insight on a topic by bringing other research to bear on it.

For example, one very fruitful way of gaining clarity in a topic in Torah is by contrasting it with relevant secular sources. A lawyer will have much deeper insight into sugyos involving contract law due to his familiarity with the way other legal systems deal with similar issues. A doctor will be able to provide a unique understanding of sugyos relating to medicine and the human body due to his knowledge of the facts on the ground. By cultivating one’s interests while also investing in related areas of Torah, a person has the potential to make a meaningful contribution to Klal Yisrael’s Torah.

Rabbi Prof. Dr. Avraham Steinberg

One awe-inspiring example of a person who is doing this in an inspiringly fruitful way is Rabbi Prof. Dr. Avraham Steinberg, world-renowned doctor, writer on issues of medical halacha and medical ethics, and CEO of the Encylopedia Talmudit. He both represents this ideal himself and recommends it for others. To get a sense of the first, just read Rabbi Chaim Goldberg’s recent interview with him in the Intermountain Jewish News. Regarding the second, here is one quote from that interview:

“…he passionately advocated that more professionals fuse their Torah study with their profession of choice. Today many doctors are religious and learned, yet very few of them go into medical Halacha or medical ethics, which I fail to understand. They learn other topics and that is nice, but what’s most relevant to them are the laws pertaining to medical practice. If you are a businessman, learn business Halacha.”

In fact, he emphasizes, it is in the interface between Torah and one’s profession where one’s Torah knowledge is most valuable, because one is an expert in one’s field. If one is familiar with the Torah principles relevant to one’s profession, one’s input is especially valuable to a rabbi making a halachic decision on that subject!

This could even be standardized, in addition to encouraging people to independently explore whatever topics they’re uniquely interested in. If we could imagine a person who learned seriously through high school plus many years in yeshiva, he will arrive in college with a serious foundation in both the skills and content of talmud Torah. Upon signing up as a pre-med, he could be placed in a learning program that focuses on a deep dive into the classic sugyos relating to medicine: the physician’s permission and obligation to heal, determining the time of death, chavala and elective surgery, triage and more. While gaining the chochma needed to accurately describe the reality of these situations, as well as the potential options available to deal with some of the challenges, he is also working to gain the Torah knowledge needed to prescribe what to do. Such a track, combining the study of a topic’s secular components with an analysis of the relevant Torah sources, has the potential to continue feeding passion and excitement within students, as well as giving them the tools they need to eventually make a significant contribution to our understanding of their area of expertise. The same approach can be applied to all areas of study with overlap in areas of Torah.

Thus, by respecting a person’s cheftzo and combining it with the value approach to learning, people become empowered to actually discover and take ownership of their chelek in Torah: a contribution to talmud Torah that is uniquely theirs to make due to their interests and experiences combined with a serious investment in learning. An additional benefit is the extra motivation and inspiration to continue learning that this approach would provide, as people will feel 1) that they are learning content that is aligned with their interests and 2) they have the ability to produce something unique.

Tzvi Goldstein graduated from Yeshiva University with semicha and a degree in psychology. After making aliyah, he taught in Yeshivat Hakotel for five years and now edits sefarim for a number of publishers. He recently published a sefer with Mosaica Press called Halachic Worldviews, exploring Rav Soloveitchik’s approach to developing hashkafa from halacha, and writes at tgb613.substack.com. You can reach him at [email protected].

1 Avos 5:21 with Rashi and Chullin 24a.