Derech Hashem - The Way of the God (Paperback or Softback)

[When one approaches a subject] the most effective way to apprehend it is to break down all its details, categorize them, and discern their interrelationships.

And so, based on its place will be the examinations by which it is necessary to examine it, according to its nature, to fully understand its form and its function: If it is a part, he will seek to know the whole of which it is a part. If it is a specific, he will seek to analyze the category. If it is a cause, he will seek to analyze its effects; if an effect, its cause. If it is an association, he will seek [knowledge] about the subject, as well as to know what type of association it is - if precedent, if antecedent or if accompanying; if essential or contingent; and if potential or actual. All of these are examinations without which he will not completely comprehend the form of the thing. With all of it [However, ], he may contemplate the nature of the thing, to know if it is constant or limited. And if it is limited, he should investigate its limits. For surely any true matter will end up becoming false if it is ascribed to a subject not fitting it or if it is seen outside of its limits.

However, one must consider that the number of details is much too great for the intellect of man to contain, and one can't know them all. Yet what is fit is for him to attempt to know the general principles. As the nature of every principle is to contain [knowledge about] many details. So, when one grasps one principle, he [also] grasps a great number of details. And even though he has not yet examined them because they are [only] details [subsumed by] the principle; [nevertheless] when one of them comes to him, he is not stunted by knowing it, since [its] general matter - which perforce must exist - is already known to him. And likewise, the Sages, may their memory be blessed, said (Sifrei Devarim 306:20), "Matters of Torah should always be in your hands as general principles and not as details."

Yet what is required in the knowledge of general principles is knowing them through all of their limits and in all of their characteristics, as I wrote above. And you must even pay attention to, and not neglect, things that first appear to be lacking any application. For there is no small or large thing in a general principle that does not have [some] application in the details. And if it does not add or take away anything about some of the details, it will certainly have great application about others. Since a principle is a principle about all the details, it must contain [some information] about each of them. Hence you must be very exacting about this and examine their functions, their relationships and their connections with great precision. And you must examine their processes and progression very well - [to know] how one matter leads to another, from the beginning to the end. 'And then you will be successful and then you will understand.'