Ben Bag Bag dice: giralo [Torah] ancora e ancora, perché [troverai] tutto dentro. E attraverso esso vedrai. E invecchia e bara, e non muoverti da esso, perché non c'è middah migliore di così. [Non dire: ho imparato la saggezza di Israele; Ora andrò e imparerò la saggezza dei Greci. Perché è permesso fare quest'ultimo solo dove non è permesso meditare con le parole della Torah, come nel bagno o nel bagno. Quando chiesero a R. Yehoshua se era permesso insegnare al proprio figlio la saggezza greca, egli rispose che era permesso farlo quando non era né giorno né notte, essendo scritto (Giosuè 1: 8): "E tu mediterai giorno e notte. "]
Mishneh Torah, Torah Study
Let man ever study the Torah and thereafter take a wife unto himself; for, if he takes a wife first, his mind will not be as clear to study. If the urge of marriage will over-burden him, even finding his heart not free to understand his studies, he should marry first and thereafter study the Torah.7Ibid. 33a. G.
Whenceonward is his father obliged to teach him the Torah? When he commences to speak, he should teach him the Verses of, "Moses commanded us a law" (Deut. 34.4), and of the Shema (Ibid. 6.4); thereafter he imparts to him little by little other Verses till he be six or seven years old, all, of course, depending upon his physical condition; thereafter he brings him under the care of a beginner's instructor.8Sukkah, 43a; Ketubot, 50a. C. G.
For instance? If one was a craftsman and engaged himself three hours daily to his work and to Torah nine hours, of those nine hours he should devote three hours to the study of Holy Writ, and three hours to the Oral Torah and the last three hours to mental reasoning, to deduct one matter from another. Matters pertaining to tradition are included in Holy Writ, but their oral explanation is included in Oral Torah. The subjects designated as Pardas12Vineyard, Works of the Chariot, Cosmogony, Metaphysics etc. G. are included in the Gemara. These rules are spoken of man's beginning of study, but when he matures in wisdom and has no need either for further study of Holy Writ or for continuous devotion to the study of Oral Torah, he should read Holy Writ and traditional matters at appointed times merely so as not to forget any matter pertaining to the laws of the Torah, and turn his attention to a continuous study of Gemara, of course, in proportion to the broadness of his heart and peacefulness of his mind.13Abodah Zarah, 19b. G.