When you approach any human wisdom, you must first understand and discern. You must say, “This makes sense to me; I will follow this. This is a teacher with a good reputation; I will consider her lessons. This doesn’t fit for me; I will put this aside for now.”
Not so with learning Torah. We already know Who is behind this wisdom. We are not interested in the knowledge per se, but in Him. To make His thoughts our thoughts, His mind our minds. To achieve perfect oneness with the One Above.
At Sinai, we understood this well. When Moses asked us if we were ready to accept the Torah, we answered, “We will do, and we will understand.”
First...