[Avodah] Does Daf Yomi Exemplify Talmud Torah?

[Professor L. Levine via Avodah]

>From the article with this title at


http://www.hakirah.org/Vol%202%20Zelcer.pdf


that appeared in Hakirah Volume 2 Fall 2005.


Does Daf Yomi meet the above definition of the ideal type of
Talmud Torah? That depends. If a person spends the proper amount
of time on each daf so that he can analyze it, understand it, and have
it sink into his memory so that he will not forget it, then obviously it
does. And even more, over a seven-and-one-half-year period, the Daf
Yomi learner will have accomplished the ideal of having completed
the entire Torah She-be'al Peh (or at least the entire Bavli).

However, the current method of Daf Yomi, as practiced by
many, of covering an entire daf in a single hour and then not
reviewing that daf until the next cycle, seven and a half years later, is
clearly not the ideal type of Talmud Torah. It is impossible for most
people to properly analyze and understand two sides of Gemara in a
single hour. It is even less likely that the concepts contained in the daf
will sink into one's mind and be remembered the day after tomorrow.
Keep in mind that R. Moshe Feinstein, who enthusiastically
supported Daf Yomi because it covers the entire Gemara, deduced the
obligation to study the entire Torah from the imperative, "to
remember all that one has learned."

Perhaps those who have only an hour to study each day
should investigate other types of learning that they can enjoy16 and
which do fulfill the requirements for the ultimate form of Talmud
Torah. Ideally, they will find this new type of study more rewarding
and it will enable them to grow in learning. Then, perhaps, they will
be motivated to set aside even more time for Talmud Torah.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20160828/c13e0bc2/attachment-0007.html>