[Avodah] Brisker Derekh

[Micha Berger]

 From R Joel Rich's most recent "audio roundup" on Hirhurim, I'm quoting
this non-audio comment in full.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

I found the following thoughts on the Brisker method by R'David Bigman
in the recent "Conversations" of great interest.

    The advantage of this method is that Talmudic study becomes a
    fascinating philosophical discussion. But it has three significant
    drawbacks: The first disadvantage, which is recognized in the yeshiva
    world, is that sometimes its innovative insights simply do not fit
    the text; the text is exploited to make the abstraction attributed
    to it. The second problem is that despite the initial interest
    that such study creates, at some point all the Talmudic passages
    begin to sound alike. There are predetermined arguments the student
    anticipates. Patterns of thought are repeated until almost all the
    halakhic discussion is given over to this type of analysis. For
    each question that arises there is a prepackaged answer. The third
    problem is the loss of the learner's awareness that the halakhic
    discussion almost always addresses a human, down-to-earth reality. The
    sages who dealt with the issues throughout the ages were intimately
    connected to reality. The discussions in the Talmud are often tied
    into the experiences, culture, and conceptions of justice of the
    individuals making their case. The rapid leap to abstraction loses
    the appreciation for the complexities and alternative explanations
    of the subject at hand.

Me [RJR]- Having been "raised" in Brisk (to the extent I had any early
interest) I applied that style for years [when I returned to learning]. At
some point I realized it had great power but sometime seemed very
forced. My current thinking (oy, I sound so pompous) is that much like in
math, where some knotty problems are attacked by multiple strategies (at
least until we reach a TOE) such as topology, algebra, number theory...,
so too until the TOE of torah is rediscovered, differing approaches
may be appropriate in differing cases. (Put another way, R'Glickman,
R'Rosensweig, R'Sacks and R'Wieder all have made deposits in my tool box).