[Avodah] Easy Tractate for Beginners

[mgluck at gmail.com]

RSS: 

I have a near 70-yr old friend at shul -- he's a senior (he's "on the path" and while he's extremely smart (Ph.D. in Math) he doesn't have any classical Jewish education.  He wants to dip his toe in the waters and read an Artscroll tractate of Gemara for the first time.  He had picked Me'ila, because it was short, and found it too hard/esoteric for him, and found it presumed way too much background knowledge. (Yeah, no kidding!)

 

Does anybody have suggestions for a different one?  Please note, this is a question related to kiruv.  I'm not looking for an answer like "well, he should know Berachos/Shabbos/Bava etc".  My primary goal is not what he "should" know, but, rather, to find something that he will find engaging enough that he will enjoy the learning.  (I'm a firm believer that when somebody says "I want to learn, where should I start?" that the answer is usually "whatever interests you").

 

MYG:

I suggest Artscroll Berachos vol. 2 – it starts with the fourth perek, about davening, and since he’s a shul-goer, he’ll have more background and context available to him than probably anywhere else. And there’s plenty of agadata that will keep him engaged. The next three perakim are more technical, but it’s still lifecycle things that he’s likely not as unfamiliar with. And then there’s a bunch a agadita again in the last perek. 

 

By the time he finishes, he’ll have enough background to go back to the volume 1 and enjoy it, and then make a siyum on the whole mesechta. 

 

Hatzlachah,

MYG

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