Di zun vet aruntergeyn

[sovay]

Ben Damah the son of Rabbi Ishmael's sister once asked the rabbi: "May one such as I, who have studied the whole of the Torah, study Greek wisdom?" Thereupon the rabbi read to him the following verse: "This book of the law shall never leave your mouth, but you must think of it constantly both day and night. Go then and find a time that is neither day nor night and in that time study Greek wisdom."
—Menachot 99b

As yet I have heard no such proscription against one who has learned Greek wisdom studying the Near Eastern. But isn't that what the liminal hours are for? It's not as though grad students sleep anyway . . .

(With apologies to Ahuvia Kahane.)

Comments

[nuqotw.livejournal.com]

Actually, a friend of mine gave a shiur on the halakhic permissibility of pursuing secular studies, which is really what hokhma yevanit (translated here very literally as "Greek wisdom") means. This opinion is one which most Jews do not follow. And those who do follow it, you'll probably never meet them.

[sovay]

I rather like the idea of "Greek" as synonymous with "secular," although I know that was probably more a result of the phrase's cultural context than anything else. But as a classicist, I must say it works for me.