Let My People Know

"To use an image from physics, Torah is knowledge that has a vector, a direction of movement, whereas other knowledge is non-vectorial"

 

Linguistically speaking, Torah means both "the body of knowledge" and "teaching." 

In this sense, it is very much like the meaning of the notion of Dao; it is the way of life, the way in which life should be conducted. 
However, Torah is not just pure knowledge as such. 

For example: the term Torah does not include mathematics, even though there are intellectual and practical connections between these two areas. 

To use an image from physics, Torah is knowledge that has a vector, a direction of movement, whereas other knowledge is non-vectorial. 

And so Torah is not just an accumulation of connected facts: it is always a knowledge that shows a way of life. 

Thus the difference between learning Torah and learning other knowledge is like the difference between studying simple dimensional mathematics and vectorial mathematics.

For the sake of precision I should add that sometimes, the word Torah has a specific meaning – namely, the Five Books of Moses. 
 
But in Pirkei Avot and elsewhere, Torah always means a general type of knowledge that teaches a way of life. 

In another book it says that everything, even heaven and earth, has limitations; only Torah has no limitations (Midrash Genesis Rabbah section 10). 

With all that, however, the study of Torah is not emotional or intuitive: it is dealt with almost like the study of mathematics. 

It may be defined as a scientific, dialectical, logically organized method of dealing with intuitive material, with a higher knowledge. And it is a learning process that continues forever.

In mathematics, there are axioms: a point, a line, a dimension, measurements, numbers, and so on; and then there is a formal and logical way of combining them. 

The basic materials of Torah are different; it deals with right and wrong, good and evil, what one should or should not do. 

And these basic materials are then developed into a logical, intellectual construction.

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz
 
From a lecture delivered in China, "Pirkei Avot and Chinese Culture: A Comparative Survey,' by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz