1. ADULT TORAH STUDY ON SABBATH

QUESTION:

In certain Orthodox congregations in California, the Rabbi, studying with adults, never begins a new topic on the Sabbath, but only reviews what had been studied during the week. Is this practice based upon law or custom, and if on custom, is it a widespread one? (Asked by Rabbi Mark Staitman, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.)

ANSWER:

The idea (or custom) not to begin a new subject of study on the Sabbath is mentioned first in the Talmud (Nedarim 37a) and there it refers specifically to the teaching of children. The talmudic passage discusses the general question whether a teacher may take pay for the teaching of Torah, since God told Moses that as He taught Moses without pay (behinom) so Moses (and all later teachers) must teach without taking pay for it. This brings up the question, how then may we pay teachers of children, as we do? And one answer is that the teachers are paid, not for teaching the Torah actually, but for teaching the punctuation (pisuq) or for custodianship baby-sitting (shimur). This then brings up the question of why it is said (and this is the first time that the statement is made) that a teacher may not teach a new subject to children on the Sabbath, but may only review old subjects. The reason given is that a new subject is difficult for the pupils and so requires greater effort on the part of the teacher. The teaching is actually hard work, which one may not do on the Sabbath and certainly not for monetary gain.

This talmudic statement that children may not be taught a new subject on the Sabbath is then repeated as law in all the codes. Maimonides gives it as law in Yad Hil. Talmud Torah 2:2. Isaac bar Sheshet in his responsa No. 440 quotes Maimonides to that effect (the reference in the Fit-hei Teshuvah to Bar Sheshet 150 is incorrect). The Mr then gives the same law in Yore Deah 245 and so does the Shulhan Arukh in Yoreh Deah 245:14. However, as for the practice observed in California by the enquirer, I could not find a record of it in any of the sources, namely, a prohibition against teaching a new subject on the Sabbath to adults. If such a prohibition with regard to adult education on the Sabbath did exist, there are many places in the literature where it would surely have been mentioned. The teacher of children who must not begin a new subject on the Sabbath must instead review previously studied subjects. The Shulhan Arukh in Yoreh Deah 246:10, speaking of the instruction of adults, warns the Rabbi to go over and repeat his teaching, but this injunction has nothing to do with the Sabbath. The repetition must be made if the students do not understand, and it is a warning to the Rabbi never to get angry but simply repeat the old subject. There is no reference there as to teaching on the Sabbath. In fact, none of the other codes (the later codes that might have mentioned such a prohibition) have any record of avoiding new subjects on the Sabbath. It is not found, for example, in Abraham Danzig’s Hokhmat Adam, nor in the Kitzur Shulhan Arukh, nor in the Arukh Hashulhan. Most telling, perhaps, is the fact that it is not mentioned at all in the Shulhan Arukh of Shneir Zalman, the founder of the Habad Hassidim. Shneir Zalman in his Schulhan Arukh closes the section Yore Deah with a long three – chapter treatise on all the details of the duty to study Torah. If he knew or advocated the practice such as that enquired about here, he had ample opportunity to mention it. He speaks of the avoiding of new difficult themes and the preference to reviewing of older and familiar themes, but never in relation to the Sabbath. In Chapter Two, Section 5, he denounces those who would review older portions of the Torah because they find it too difficult to begin a study of a new portion. He makes the same comment in Chapter Three, #2. In Chapter Three, #4, he speaks of the Rabbi teaching the people on Sabbath afternoon at the time of Minhah, but makes no mention of the Rabbi’s duty to avoid difficult new themes and contenting himself with review of old.

However, although none of the sources mention such a custom of avoiding new themes on the Sabbath, it is easy to understand how the idea arose among some people to extend the prohibition of teaching new subjects to children on Sabbath and applying it also to the teaching of adults. The prohibition with regard to children came about because the teacher of children was paid for his work and therefore he was prohibited to do hard work for pay on the Sabbath (hard work such as struggling to impart a new theme). But the Rabbi teaching adults was supposed, like Moses, to teach without pay (to make his livelihood from other sources). Therefore if he did work hard teaching a new theme on the Sabbath, he was not working for pay. However, when the social situation changed and the Rabbi became, as one might say, a professional, and was paid for teaching the Torah, then one might well have argued just as in the case with the professional teacher of children, the now professional teacher of adults also should not do hard work on the Sabbath by trying to inculcate a new difficult theme. This would be, indeed, a reasonable conclusion. But although it is a reasonable extension of the law concerning the teachers of children, it never actually became a widespread custom in adult Torah education.

Nor is it likely that this custom observed in one or two places in California could ever become widespread. Since ancient times it was the custom for the Rabbi to give a halakhic address on the Sabbath and especially on certain Sabbaths to teach the halakhah involved in the forthcoming holiday. This sermon certainly was meant to be Torah education for the people, although it took place within the service (before Mussaf) and not as a separate class session after the services (see the references to the halakhic preaching on the Sabbath in Gedaliah Felder’s Yesodei Yeshurun, 4, p. 436).

To sum up: The established law not to begin a new subject of study for children on the Sabbath apparently has been extended in some localities to adult halachic education on the Sabbath. But this extension, although to some degree reasonable, has never become law or even a widespread custom.

The avoidance on the Sabbath of beginning new themes of study may well have another source besides the carry over from child learning to adult study. The Talmud (Taanit 30a and Shulhan Arukh Orah Hayyim 554..2) prohibits study on the ninth day of Av because “the laws of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart” (Psalm 19:9). Since the ninth of Av is a fast day (a day of mourning) the study of the Torah, which ” rejoices the heart,” is forbidden. However (the Talmud continues) on the ninth of Av a man may study those parts with which he is not familiar. Rashi explains the reason for this permission, namely, that a man is generally saddened by the realization that he is still ignorant of this new part of the subject, and one should be sad on the ninth of Av.

From this law it is natural to draw the following conclusion: Since on the ninth of Av, when we are in duty bound to be sad, it is permitted to study new subjects (since our ignorance of them saddens us), then on the Sabbath when it is our duty to rejoice, we should always avoid these troubling new study themes.