[Avodah] Talmud Study: From Proficiency to Meaning

[Professor L. Levine via Avodah]

Please the article

NEW! Hakirah, Volume 21


Talmud Study: From Proficiency to Meaning<http://www.hakirah.org/Vol21Brandes.pdf> (download the complete article)
by: Yehuda Brandes, president of Herzog College in Gush Etzion. He is the former head of the Beit Midrash at Beit Morasha in Jerusalem and the author of many books and articles on Talmud, Jewish law, education and Jewish philosophy.


I sent the following email to the editor of Hakirah


In his article Talmud Study:From Proficiency to Meaning (Volume 21) Yehuda Brandes writes:

This look at the commentaries of the Rishonim on Hazal's division of
fields of knowledge in study explains the Mishnah's discussion in Pirqei
'Avot of the appropriate age to begin each type of study. Five years of
age for the study of Miqra-this is the stage in the child's development in
which one can begin to teach him to read; in these years one should focus
on teaching Miqra according to the cognitive and emotional abilities of
the child.  Ten years of age for the study of Mishna-this is a stage in a
child's development in which he is capable of reviewing knowledge and
retaining it. This is after he has already acquired basic skills of reading
comprehension in the first years of elementary school. Fifteen years of
age for the study of Talmud-this is a stage of emotional and cognitive
development in which it is appropriate to begin dealing with analysis, critical
thinking, and in-depth study. As pointed out by many scholars who
dealt with the curriculum in institutions of Jewish learning, study which
does not follow this order, and which is not tailored to the specific level
and abilities of the individual student, is inefficient and even harmful.

Is not the child of today raised in today's milieu different in many ways from a child raised 100 years ago,  200 years ago, a thousand years ago,  etc.?  I would contend that these differences affect the ways that children learn today.  In my experience of teaching college mathematics for many years, I noted considerable differences in learning between the students I encountered in 1968 and those that I taught in 2014.  Given this, I find it hard to believe that there are not huge differences in the nature of the students that the learning program described above was aimed at and today's students.  Thus,  I have to ask,  should we be applying the guidelines above to today's students?

Let me point out that the recommendation "shemone esrei l'chupa"  for young men is widely ignored today by much of the Orthodox world, including the right-wing yeshiva world.  Why?  Is it not because to a large extent the nature of the 18 year-old of today is considerably different than that of the 18 year-old in the time of Chazal? If so,  then doesn't the same apply to the nature of younger yeshiva students?

Prof. Yitzchok Levine


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