Q&A: Study
Study
Question
Hello, I have a few questions regarding study in yeshiva.
Do you have recommendations about how to develop one’s learning abilities, beyond following the passages that everyone is studying analytically in the morning study session? Should one learn more study sessions in depth? And up to what point should one “get stuck” on the passage?
Do you think there is a way to know that I’ve reached a sufficient level? I don’t intend to stay for many years; the environment is very competitive…
Answer
First of all, stick to the class, prepare for it, and review it well and critically, preferably with the sources in front of you. When questions come up during review, ask friends or the rosh metivta. It’s also worthwhile to summarize at the end, once the matter is organized in your mind (the summary itself helps create order). In parallel, if you can, I would devote time to going through foundational works in depth: Shev Shma’tata, Sha’arei Yosher, Takfo Kohen, and Kuntres Ha-Sfeikot. Read articles on various topics, absorb as much as you can, but try to summarize each article or section you studied for yourself so that it stays with you.
In my opinion, you should focus on in-depth Talmudic study as much as you can. Certainly at the expense of Jewish law, thought, the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), Hasidut, and the rest of the unnecessary and unhelpful vegetables. That is the essence of yeshiva and its main added value. Everything else, even if for some reason you want to do it, you can do in your free time elsewhere and at another stage. In my opinion, this focus on in-depth study can even come at the expense of breadth study. Stay with a passage as long as you don’t feel you’ve exhausted it (don’t keep spinning your wheels once you already are exhausted), but don’t disconnect from your class.
If you want a benchmark for knowing when you can detach from the frontal, class-based learning in yeshiva, see when you are able to study a passage in depth on your own, recognize that you’ve touched on the important points and sources, and deliver a good-level chabura on it. If you can do that on ten different passages, you’re already in good shape.
All this is said on the assumption that you will continue studying seriously even after leaving yeshiva. If not, then none of this is all that important.
The last sentence is brilliant in my opinion