[Avodah] Does Daf Yomi Exemplify Talmud Torah?

[Micha Berger]

We discussed this last cycle. It's a tanna who lays out shelish bemiqra,
shelish bemishnah and shelish bigeamara [some gira'os: betalmud]. So
gemara / talmud doesn't mean the book. As the Rambam writes (Talmud Torah
1:11), it's lehavin davar mitokh davar and where the halakhah comes from.

This is what they had in mind when they named it "Talmud Bavli". The iqar
point of shas, then, is be'iyun. Learning beqi'us is to enable be'iyun.
For men (who are mechuyavim in talmud Torah) who have the time to do
both daf Yomi and regular be'iyun, it serves that goal. But for many,
where the 45 min a day means being told what the gemara means without
any ameilus, it's simply not what talmud is for.

Historically, this is what people learned mishnayos for, typically
with Bartenura.


I just fear (as I said on Areivim) that these discussions are an example
of "the perfect is the enemy of the good". Daf Yomi gets men in front of
sefarim, and while they could learn more or better, they are learning. (I
presume no one is claiming actual zero comprehension.) It's what we have,
and it works that far. Why are we knocking it without the facilities to
put in a better replacement? We don't even have an agreed upon proposal
of what that replacement would look like. And who will market it fast and
thoroughly enough to have the "market penetration" of daf yomi? Without
all these things we don't have, this kind of analysis will only reduce
total learning.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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