Dear Dr. Berger:
I would like to second the sentiments expressed by David Gleicher concerning the teaching of Gemara. In fact, I think that my stay at YU may have overlapped Davids time there. I have not enjoyed the page by page approach to studying Gemara that is universally followed in Jewish schools. It was something that always bothered my late father who had studied in Yeshivot in Europe before the war and who after turning to any page of the Gemara followed by a quick review of Rashi and Tosafos could explain the sugyot found therein.
Today I have a renewed interest in the Gemara, but not as a collection of legal discussions but as a chronicle of Jewish life in Israel and in Babylonia at the time of the Mishna and Gemara; approximately 70 CE to 500 CE. I discovered that manner of viewing the Gemara after being exposed for the first time (in my mid 40s) to the way the Gemara is studied in universities. That view of the Gemara opens up to you as soon as you study the Gemara, not page by page, but by topic. Many Jewish Studies professors use that method of study to trace the development of specific areas within Jewish law. What you notice when you study the Gemara by topic is that you are bringing organization to a set of books that are disorganized, a statement that I believe no one on this board would dispute. I personally have used this method to trace the origin of the words and structure of the Siddur. By viewing the Mishna and the Gemara as representing different periods of Jewish History, I have concluded that the Seder HaTephilot during the time of the Mishna was substantially different than at the time of the Gemara. Ask yourself: are you aware of any Mishna that links the recital of Kriyas Shema to the recital of Shemona Esrei? That link, Semichas Geula LTefila, appears on the scene only in the time of the Gemara and it is not clear that even at that time, the rule was universally accepted.
And so I have wondered: are there others like myself who did not enjoy studying the Gemara page by page? Could those students develop a taste for Gemara if (a) they are provided the history of what was happening in both Israel and Babylonia during the period of the Gemara and (b) they are taught the Gemara by topic. Given the access we all have to digitized copies of the Gemara, designing courses that teach the Gemara by topic is not difficult. May I suggest the following four year high school curriculum: Family Law, followed by Torts (Nezikin), a year of Criminal Law and conclude with Shabbos and the Holidays.
Abe Katz
Execuutive Director
The Beurei Hatefila Institute
www.beureihatefila.com
