[Avodah] More on Mitzvos and Iyun

[Micha Berger]

RYGB posted on Avodah a debate he is having with a colleague at MTA. I
addressed the hashkafic issues there. The more lemaaseh aspect I want to take
here.

First, a caveat: I have a son who hopes to enter MTA, and he has reading
difficulties that will keep him from the top track. I'm nogei'ah bedavar.

RYGB wrote:
: As such, I have great difficulty justifying the almost pointless
: instruction of the lower levels in Gemara b'Iyun. Better to teach them
: Sefer HaChinuch.

As my son is a case in point. He would have no problem following the be'iyun,
if he didn't have to deal with reading the texts. As he is significantly above
grade level in math, I have little doubt (and a father's confidence and pride)
that he could follow a tife sevarah with the best of 'em. Should he be
deprived?

In general: IQ is a fiction in that intelligence can't be reduced to a single
number. Different people can gain different things from be'iyun, they needn't
get everything out of it to get /something/.

In an extreme case where there is simply no comprehension at all: Someone who
sits in a shiur and gets blinded by arguments that go over his head still has
the emotional experience of knowing that there is a beautiful edifice behind
the practices -- even if he can't understand it. Many of the people who are
"blinded by science" are the biggest believers in its truth.

Last, the lower tracks cover less. I presume that unless it is graded on a
curve, the A student in a lower track learned the same percentage of the
material taught. It might still be be'iyun, but with less iyun. So in effect,
you are advising an all-or-nothing to replace the more-or-less spectrum that
is already there.

Tir'u baTov!
-mi

-- 
Micha Berger             Spirituality is like a bird: if you tighten
micha at aishdas.org        your grip on it, it chokes; slacken your grip,
http://www.aishdas.org   and it flies away.
Fax: (270) 514-1507                            - Rav Yisrael Salanter