Said he [Rabbi Zeira] to him [Rav Assi], But I once asked you and you did not answer me: perhaps in the rush your tradition hurried back to you? Yes, he replied; in the rush my tradition hurried back to me.
-Shabbat 130b
We don't learn in single blocks of information, unconnected from anything else, but rather we add to our webs of knowledge, accumulating connections between things we already understand and that which we are trying to assimilate.
When pressured for an answer, Rav Assi couldn't remember his teaching, but in the flow of the entire argument, from the context of the entire debate, his tradition hurried back to him, and he could give an answer.
To learn something well, it must resonate with other facts within our web of knowledge.
To teach well, we must help our students find those points of connection for themselves, so they too can experience the rush in which learning hurries back to them.
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label learning. Show all posts
Monday, February 11, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Shabbat 83b - Studying torah? It's to die for.
Resh Lakish said 'words of Torah only endure in someone who kills himself over them, as it says "This is the Torah, when a person dies in a tent..." (Num 19)'.
While these words of Resh Lakish have been interpreted as saying that the torah can only endure as long as people are willing to die for it, which is to say become martyrs, I tend to read this powerful statement psychologically.
As long as you are concerned with yourself, the torah cannot endure in you - there is too much ego to make room for God. To make room for God and the words of torah you must kill your 'self', remove your ego, make room for the Holy One to radically alter your life.
While these words of Resh Lakish have been interpreted as saying that the torah can only endure as long as people are willing to die for it, which is to say become martyrs, I tend to read this powerful statement psychologically.
As long as you are concerned with yourself, the torah cannot endure in you - there is too much ego to make room for God. To make room for God and the words of torah you must kill your 'self', remove your ego, make room for the Holy One to radically alter your life.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
The learning of youth - Shabbat 21b
Abaye, upon learning a teaching about shabbat and chanukah wicks, responds by wishing he had learnt it before hand.
But what's the difference? asks the gemara, hasn't he learnt it now?
The answer given is that the difference is about the learning of one's youth. Abaye wishes he could have learned this teaching when he was still young, so that, as Rashi explains, it would stick in his mind better.
The power of youth
Not only does our learning when young have the potential to stick with us for the rest of our lives, but it also has the power to alter the way we think for the rest of our lives.
I am eternally grateful to my parents that I was raised in a home dominated by Judaism and yiddishkeit, where Torah was spoken around the dinner table, the language of midrash and kabbalah part of every day life - it has made my rabbinical journey far easier.
Yet there are things I wish I had learnt when I was younger - for example more Hebrew and hilchot shabbat - that would now be enmeshed with who I am.
Living with our past
But there's nothing any of us can do to change what we learned when we were young. Short of the invention of time travel, I cannot make it the case that I learned to speak Hebrew fluently at a young age.
All we can do is plan for our future - try to teach our children, and the children under our care, the things we believe they need to learn when young, the ideas that can change the way they think, and help them grow into thoughtful, compassionate human beings and Jews.
But what's the difference? asks the gemara, hasn't he learnt it now?
The answer given is that the difference is about the learning of one's youth. Abaye wishes he could have learned this teaching when he was still young, so that, as Rashi explains, it would stick in his mind better.
The power of youth
Not only does our learning when young have the potential to stick with us for the rest of our lives, but it also has the power to alter the way we think for the rest of our lives.
I am eternally grateful to my parents that I was raised in a home dominated by Judaism and yiddishkeit, where Torah was spoken around the dinner table, the language of midrash and kabbalah part of every day life - it has made my rabbinical journey far easier.
Yet there are things I wish I had learnt when I was younger - for example more Hebrew and hilchot shabbat - that would now be enmeshed with who I am.
Living with our past
But there's nothing any of us can do to change what we learned when we were young. Short of the invention of time travel, I cannot make it the case that I learned to speak Hebrew fluently at a young age.
All we can do is plan for our future - try to teach our children, and the children under our care, the things we believe they need to learn when young, the ideas that can change the way they think, and help them grow into thoughtful, compassionate human beings and Jews.
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