Q&A: Questions about the lecture series on Torah study
Questions about the lecture series on Torah study
Question
Hello Rabbi, I listened to the lecture series on Torah study and I have a number of questions.
Isn’t there a certain missed element in yeshivot that study only in-depth Talmud? A situation is created where people leave yeshiva without basic knowledge of Jewish law! After all, most people won’t stay for fifteen years to study—it’s not possible—so at least let them leave with a halakhic toolbox! It simply sounds like the Rabbi agrees with the study approach of the yeshiva world.
B. Isn’t Rabbi Amiel’s Methods for the Study of Jewish Law a kind of encyclopedia of conceptual explanations that the Rabbi was looking for in the lecture?
P.S. In my opinion, in the Religious Zionist yeshiva world the recognition that it takes many long years of study to reach a good level of analytical Talmudic scholarship is not sufficiently ingrained; it’s hard to find someone who studies in-depth analysis for 10–15 years.
Answer
A. In my opinion, there is no missed element. The purpose of the yeshiva is not to impart knowledge but skill. The knowledge is a bonus. Studying the details of Jewish law (such as the Mishnah Berurah or Kitzur Shulchan Aruch) is not a matter of skill but of knowledge. That can also be done independently.
The accepted policy in yeshivot is that their goal is to raise Torah scholars. Everyone else is only a byproduct. Maybe that is a mistake, and perhaps there should also be yeshivot intended to raise ordinary laymen, and to separate between the two. The policy today is different, and perhaps therein lies a problem.
B. It is not an encyclopedia, but rather a writing-up of several entries from within one. The problem in creating an encyclopedia is not writing the entries, but organizing and classifying all the entries. As I explained there, what is missing is the key for classification. In that, Rabbi Amiel was not very helpful.
I think that recognition actually is ingrained there, but people do not aspire to become analytical scholars (or at least, it is not worth the not-simple prices that this demands of them. See column 34 on the site), and therefore they do not remain there.