Thursday, September 18, 2014

Chagiga 13a - Teaching Torah To Goyim

I already posted about this issue 7.5 years ago.
http://hearos.blogspot.com/2007/04/chagiga-13a-lifnei-iver-two-sides-of.html
Aside from the two points above, there is a Maharsha that takes an alternate approach to explaining why we require an independent prohibition of not "giving" Torah to a goy, and it is not sufficient to forbid it based on the prohibition for a goy to learn Torah thereby creating an issur of lifnei iver to teach it to him. The Maharsha suggests that really we are speaking about the 7 mitzvos bnei noach for which there is a mitzvah for a goy to learn so that they know how to keep them. Nevertheless, one cannot "give" or be mo'ser to the the explanation and deeper understanding behind the halachos. This seems to be consistent with the the statement in the gemara that directly proceeds this one, אין מוסרין סתרי תורה אלא למי שיש בו חמשה דברים שר חמשים ונשוא פנים וכו. Although the gemara changes from the expression of סתרי תורה to דברי תורה, it is still referring to deeper aspects of the halacha and not the simple piskei halachos. The prohibition to be מוסר דברי תורה לעכו"ם is even for the 7 mitzvos b'nei noach when one gives over to them the tools to analyze and understand the fundamentals behind it.