The study of Torah, in the broad sense of all the classical Jewish religious texts and commentaries, is of paramount importance in Jewish life. As soon as the Pentateuch was completed, God told Joshua, "Let not this Book of the Teaching cease from your lips, but recite it day and night" (Josh. 1:8). The Mishnah stresses the centrality of Torah study when it lists various commandments and then concludes, "But the study of Torah is equivalent to them all" (Pe'ah 1:1, amplified in Shab. 127a). The Talmud debates which is more important, action or study, and opts for on study, "for it brings one to action" (Kid. 40a). In fact, when a solitary individual studies the Torah, God Himself determines that person's reward (Avot 3:3). Ideally, a man should divide his free time between study of the Bible, Mishnah, and Talmud (Kid. 30a).
The performance of a commandment is always preceded by the appropriate blessing. In the case of Torah study, which should ideally be carried out throughout the day, the blessing is recited as part of the morning prayers. To ensure that the blessing will not have been recited in vain, it is followed by a limited amount of Torah study, including a passage from the Pentateuch containing the Priestly Blessing (Num. 6:24-26), another from the Mishnah (Pe'ah 1:1), and a third from the Talmud (Shab. 127a).
The obligation to study Torah on a regular basis only applies to men. Under traditional Jewish law women were required to study the Written Law and not the Oral Law, and only those laws which apply to them.
According to Sifré (Ekev), it is the father's duty to teach his son Hebrew from the time the child begins to talk. As the lingua franca at the time was Aramaic, the implication is that the child must be taught Hebrew even if this will not be his mother tongue. More specifically, a Mishnah in Avot spells out a regimen of study: "at five, the Torah; at ten, the Mishnah; at 15, the Talmud" (5:25). Yet Ecclesiastes Rabbah (7) points out that not every person is capable of following such a plan, and that "of 1,000 who enter [the study of Torah], only 100 attain [the study of] Mishnah, and only ten reach [the study of] the Talmud."
Sifré (Ha'azinu) offers practical advice on how to study, stating that a person should devote himself to general principles, which can then be applied elsewhere, rather than to specific facts, which cannot be easily translated into an operable hypothesis. The rabbis advocated setting aside a fixed daily time for study and stressed the advantages of studying with a fellow student or students. The Bet Midrash (study house) was a permanent feature of all communities.
The importance of study may be summed up in one of the pictures drawn by the sages of the World to Come, where "the righteous will sit with their crowns on their heads" while studying Torah directly with God Himself.
See also Education; Talmud Torah.
