[Avodah] rif yomi

[Micha Berger]

There are three things we *have* to learn regularly, and I bet it will be
shown this list is not complete.

- Shenayim Miqra veEchad Targum
- Kol hashoneh halakhos bekhol yom... And, as per R' Hai Gaon quoted in
  the Derishah quoted in the AhS cited on list yesterday.
- Rambam 2:2: Vehei'ach he haderekh le'ahavaso? ...

So, the minimal classically driven learning would apparently be:
    - Chumash with Targum or a lower-case-t targum

    - Qitzur or Chayei+Chokhmas Adam (or MB with something covering
      the relevent pieces of the other 3 turim). (The LR held the Rambam,
      but I would give more emphasis on someone whose pesaq has less
      consequent discussion and evolution. There are too many times
      "no one" outside the Bal'adi Teimanim hold like the Rambam. The
      SA haRav would more fit my mental image.)

    - Some kind of hashkafah yomi, but not midin talmud Torah, but to
      fulfil ahavas veyir'as Hashem. There really aren't any texts
      exclusively dedicated to the topic until the rishonim.

Talmud is lehavin davar mitoch davar (Hil TT 1:11), and while that should
be a minimum of a 3rd of your learning time, that isn't condusive to a
yomi format for many of us. (And recall that I personally /am/ learning
a talmud yomi, albeit a much shorter talmud with less on each daf.)

But I write in-house software for a hedge fund. In my line of work, one
can't simply plan what the new system ought to look like from a clean
slate. The traders can't simply stop making money during a switchover
from one paradigm to another. The ideal system is therefore one that
has a workable migration path to its adoption.

And daf yomi, for any limitation we might find in it for many or even
the majority of those committed to cycle #13, is what's out there. It
has the pull of popularity, it has the infrastructure, and it promotes
spending time with a seifer.

Pursuing the ideal might be appropriate for us contrarians who won't be
pulled by all that the daf yomi infrastructure has to offer. And Avodah by
its very nature will have a disproportionate number of us. But I can't
see it as serious comptetiion for the mainstream. As the AhS warns,
it will reduce overall learning and immersion in the learning culture
to tamper with the learning shas paradigm.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Man is capable of changing the world for the
micha at aishdas.org        better if possible, and of changing himself for
http://www.aishdas.org   the better if necessary.
Fax: (270) 514-1507            - Victor Frankl, Man's search for Meaning