[Avodah] Does Daf Yomi Exemplify Talmud Torah?

[Ezra Chwat]

Micha: "Why are we knocking it (Daf Yomi)  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".

The replacement has been around, serving precisely this function, for
over 900 years. The Great Talmud Digest produced by the last Gaon with
the authority to canonize such an abridgment- The Rif.

Only in recent generations, when learned magidey shiurim decided that's
what's good for them is good even for non-Yeshivah learning, and when
egalitarian educators assumed that the matrix text of Torah creativity-
the Talmud- is to be made available not only to Torah producers, but to
Torah consumers at all levels as well, has the Talmud become an item of
mass consumption.

We know that the Rambam taught his students Rif, and recommended it to
others, so one can understand his intention of the abovementioned final
third element of the learning day- not "analysis" rather "deduction
from scripture (and primary sources) towards Halakha" (MT Talmud Torah
I 11). This is exactly the abridgement formula in Rif: deduction without
dialectics.

Myself included, many who are about to conclude the Daf Yomi cycle have a
feeling of dissatisfaction, not of "zero understanding", but of near-zero
retention and a low level of internalization.

The dialectic element of the Talmud Bavli is what makes it the matrix
text of Torah creativity. But the minute we left the Yeshiva we became
Torah consumers, much less than Torah producers. This dialectic element
impedes the consumption of Talmud. It's simply more difficult to remember
and internalize multi-optional analysis. The Rif was developed to maintain
extensive, high level Talmud retention for laymen with limited time for
study. Today's "commuter Talmudists" could benefit from the Rif, the
"home version" of the Talmud, as well as our ancestors did. In the same
time and effort to learn one cycle of Talmud one can learn four cycles
of Rif. With more, shorter cycles, the retention improves progressively.
As for the subjects lost in the abridgements, the Talmud Bavli is also
far short of the Complete Torah that can be attained only by learning
Mishnah or Rambam. As for Aggadah, there is a minhag to learn Rif during
the week and supplement it with Ein Yakov on Shabbat (when there is no
access to the on-line Rif sites anyway).

Dr. Ezra Chwat
The Department of Manuscripts/
National Library of Israel
blog: Giluy Milta B'Alma: http://imhm.blogspot.com