Q&A: A Yeshiva Student in Perplexity
A Yeshiva Student in Perplexity
Question
Hello Rabbi,
I am a married yeshiva student at one of the hesder yeshivot in northern Israel, in Year 10.
After almost a decade in the yeshiva world, unfortunately I’m facing the painful fact that I wasted my time all those years and didn’t use it properly. My accomplishments are embarrassing, and my Torah level in general, as well as my learning abilities, are really on the level of a first-year student. (You’re probably asking yourself why I stayed so long. Good question.) In any case, I still have a desire to acquire serious analytical learning skills and a broad base of Torah knowledge.
The problem is that I’m in a yeshiva that doesn’t learn analytical Talmud study in the way I would like (Rabbi Zini’s yeshiva in Haifa, if you know his style), and I can’t leave for somewhere else because my wife is studying at the Technion for the next three years.
But I still want to learn in depth. What do you think I can do in my situation? In what framework could I learn on my own? Is it even realistic to acquire that kind of skill independently, without a yeshiva and a serious study group around me?
Answer
I think it’s possible. I assume you can handle analytical sefarim, so learn books like that with a study partner in the yeshiva. Even the tractate you’re learning there, together with the lectures/novellae of Rabbi Shmuel Rozovsky. There are also “standard go-to” works on the classic yeshiva tractates: Nachalat Moshe, Beit Lechem Yehuda, and the like.
There’s a Haredi yeshiva in Haifa called Nachalat HaLeviim (in Neve Sha’anan); maybe there you’ll find an analytical style that suits you.