Why begin teaching Gemara in elementary-school grades? This question overlaps with the question previously discussed on this forum: Why learn Gemara? It is so important to ask these questions. Its probably because we dont ask them enough, and because we take the current situation for granted, that we have lost sight of we are trying to achieve when spending such a great deal of time teaching this one area of the Jewish Studies curriculum.
I was somewhat surprised that so few, if any, have suggested that it is in fact a mistake to teach Gemara. In the capacity of my work with literally hundreds of Gemara teachers (rebbeim in the vernacular) during my numerous visits to schools, I have repeatedly heard this sentiment. Not so much from the teachers themselves, but rather from the teachers-as-mouthpieces-for-their-students who hear from their students that they feel bored/disaffected/uninterested/frustrated/mind-numbed/bored (did I mention bored already?) with learning Gemara. These teachers tell how they answer their students that: there is no Torah without Torah Shebeal Peh, that all of halacha is based on Gemara, that it is Dvar Hashem etc. In fact many ideas similar to those proposed by the respondents in previous postings, in many variations, have reached my ears, all of which I certainly agree with. But these rebbeim complain that rarely do these reasons resonate with these students. They simply dont motivate them to rise above their anti-Gemara feelings.
(In certain circles, the answer they give is: Its good for Parnosso. If the expected thing is for the student to eventually go to kollel, the size of his kollel check might be in proportion to his ability to learn. Or to go into Chinuch. Now theres a sobering thought
.)
I am firmly of the opinion that we should teach Gemara, and that we should be starting to do so in middle schools, if not even earlier. Beyond the responses that have been posted so far and to which I would certainly sign off on in principle, I would like to suggest two separate though connected additional angles that address these questions.
1. Most Gemara teaching is content-driven, and since the level of sophistication and relevance varies from sugya to sugya, and since most Gemara teaching doesnt take this into consideration, most Gemara teaching is in fact a mess, and for many, if not most students is a counterproductive exercise, because they simply dont get it. To illustrate this, let me take the subject of mathematics for example. Imagine a teacher entering a 2nd grade class and announcing today we will deal with calculus, and then going to a 9th grade class and announcing today we will deal with simple multiplication and division. Sounds absurd right? Such a teacher would surely be severely reprimanded at such a miserable ignorance of the need to teach different aspects of this particular subject-matter (math in this case) in a particular scope-and-sequence that is age-appropriate and logical in terms of its skills hierarchy, not-to-mention that this teacher probably has a well-researched curriculum that the school has adopted that has obviously been ignored. But we come across this exact occurrence daily in many Gemara classes (except for the well-researched curriculum bit, which is inexplicably missing from the Gemara teaching landscape and hence the current crisis). Choices regarding which Gemaras should be taught are usually decided by what is considered as Mesora to be the correct sequence of perakim. Beyond this there is little pedagogic consideration given to what should be taught at different age levels and how to go about doing so.
Clearly, what is missing is a skills-driven approach to teaching Gemara that identifies the different skills and knowledges that constitute the ability to eventually open up almost any page of Gemara, and independently make a leyning. Such an approach would allow students to experience the empowerment of their real (and assessed) ability at their stage of Gemara-skills development. As they develop, they will have the ability to grapple with more and more sophisticated sugyas and eventually rishonim and achronim, etc. Since we have left behind the elitist Gemara-for-the-Metsuyanim-only era, and are now firmly entrenched in the Gemara-education-for-the-masses era, the need for this skills-based approach is even more acute.
Gemara Berura, that I am privileged to direct, is one such (computer-assisted) skills-based approach to teaching Talmud (Mishna and Gemara). It allows teachers to focus not only on the contents of the piece of Talmud at hand, but to expose to their students the inner methodology of Talmudic reasoning, namely OMDT for Mishna and Shaqla VeTarya for Gemara. Schools are now beginning to identify the skills that they wish their students to acquire and are adjusting their curriculum accordingly. As a result students are more empowered, motivated and eager to attend Gemara classes, and teachers are more capable of assisting their students to increase their Talmud-skills level via a clear and systematic approach. This is not the place to go into details, and anyone interested in finding out more is invited to check out the website, email, and links listed below.
2. In broad brush-stroke terms, if the goal of Torah SheBeal Peh is: to fill in the missing pieces left by the Torah SheBichtav, to continue the search for the truth, to discover what might be Retson Hashem in any given situation; then the method in which the Gemara does this, the technique it employs to achieve these goals, is probably as important as the actual contents that appear as the end result of such a method and technique. The Talmud is powered by a particular toolset that dictates how each and every issue raised by the Chachmay Hatalmud is treated and addressed. As mentioned above, this toolset is the basis for the investigative system known as OMDT for Mishna and Shaqla VeTarya for Gemara, that includes a systematic series of function classifications that every part of the Talmud needs to be classified into (question, answer, conclusion, etc.). It also includes a list of key-words and phrases that are used to inform the reader how to classify a particular piece of Talmud. For example, Urminhu denotes a contradiction between two sources of equal authority. Or Hacha Bemai Askinan means there is an Ukimta (reassignment) answer that reassigns one of the conflicting sources to mean something else such that there is no longer any conflict. In addition, this toolset includes a set of strict Clallai HaTalmud that dictates the dos and donts of Talmudic argumentation*.
The upshot of this is that if we teach our students to master the toolset, the system, the overall approach and not only the contents, we are providing our students with the ability to perceive reality via the unique perspective that Chazal employed to discover the truth, the Ratzon Hashem that is waiting to be revealed in any given situation not just the particular scenarios that appear in the Talmud. When we do this, we view reality via the unique prism of Statement, Question, Answer, Reinforcement, Conclusion, etc. that structures an ongoing conversation that spans many generations, from Har Sinai, to ours, and beyond, in order to unearth the truth and Ratson Hashem in every generation. Our experience is that if this powerful and empowering idea is conveyed and implemented properly (we have developed a number of approaches to achieve this) students are more likely to feel empowered, challenged, and motivated to invest more of their energies into Talmud studies.
Therefore, my answer is: Yes, we should teach Talmud, so long as we are employing a sound skills-driven approach. And since Talmud is a complex subject to master (think of the mathematics example I mentioned earlier), we need to begin the process early with age appropriate texts and skills and a properly developed scope-and-sequence, starting with a skills-based approach to teaching Mishna, and then seamlessly moving on to a skills-based approach to teaching Gemara. If we do this right, we will have motivated, skilled and empowered students who will have access to the Talmud and who feel an integral member of the people whos task it is to discover the truth and Ratson Hashem in this world, and thereby desire to live a life that would be considered a Kiddush Hashem. Amen!
*The scope of this posting only deals with the Halachic elements of the Talmud not the Aggadic elements.
To see the main elements of the Gemara Berura methodology, click this link:
[
www.gemaraberura.com]
To view a brief video presenting the OMDT methodology for Mishna-type texts, click this link:
[
www.youtube.com]
To download the Pilot Hascholas Gemara curriculum prototype Student Workbook on Tfillas Hashachar, click here:
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80.244.164.91]
Rabbi Meir Fachler
Director
Gemara Berura (www.gemaraberura.com )
Phone (US and Israel) (917) 779 8056
Israel cell ++ (972) 52 385 8455
meir@jet-start.com
