Scientific Knowledge
Not only was Chizma possessed of wide rabbinic learning, but he was also an adept in the sciences. Joshua, introducing him and Johanan b. (Gudgada) Nuri to the notice of Patriarch Gamaliel II, remarked of them that they could approximately calculate the number of drops contained in the ocean (Hor. 10a). As they were very poor, Gamaliel appointed them to remunerative offices in the academy (Sifre, Deut. 14; Yalḳ., Deut. 902; Hor. l.c.). Probably it was here—because the academicians sought from him instruction in secular science—that Eleazar remarked, "The laws concerning birds' nests and those concerning the incipient uncleanness of woman are elements of the Law, while astronomy and geometry are only condiments of wisdom" (Ab. iii. 18; Ab. R. N. xxvii. 2).
Read more about this topic: Eleazar Chisma
Famous quotes containing the words scientific and/or knowledge:
“Those Dutchmen had hardly any imagination or fantasy, but their good taste and their scientific knowledge of composition were enormous.”
—Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890)
“It is well worth the efforts of a lifetime to have attained knowledge which justifies an attack on the root of all evil—viz. the deadly atheism which asserts that because forms of evil have always existed in society, therefore they must always exist; and that the attainment of a high ideal is a hopeless chimera.”
—Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910)