‘you teach the world / how to live / how to give / and how to believe’, so surely it shouldn't be a big deal for you to teach me how to think.
Send me back to Yeshiva with a Talmud, notebook and pencil. Ask me to open any page, to read any opinion and to write down what I think. Do I agree or disagree? How would I explain the opinion to a skeptic? If all my money were dependant on this case, how would I convince a judge that this opinion is the just one?
After I am done writing ask me to do the same for the opposing argument. When my hands get tired of writing, allow me to debate these opinions with my fellow students. Let my spend all morning advocating one opinion and all afternoon advocating the opposite opinion. Please just make me do it.
By the end of the year, I may know fewer pages of Talmud, I may not read every last “acharon” but I’ll know how to think.
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3 comments:
I like it!!!
What is the feeling? ruminating over the wasted time in Yeshivah because we were too young or because the system wasn't very good. What about now? Now you do have the ability to learn appreciate and cherish it.
I need to call you about Bava Basra.
Sruley, you’re absolutely right. I am trying to do it (notice the post ”the indirect damage”), I was wondering what you think about this (untraditional) way of learning, important? waste of time? Irrelevant?
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