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Thursday, March 03, 2005

Daf Yomi - not just for Orthodox

The Jerusalem Post editorializes:


The next step would be to see the growth of daf yomi, or some form of similarly dedicated Talmud study, spread outside of traditional Orthodox circles, and into the non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.

In recent years, there has been a growing realization among Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist leaders, and even Jewish educators without specific affiliation, that exposing their constituents directly to the study of Judaism's fundamental texts is essential to elevating their basic Jewish literacy. Talmudic study in some form or another is no less essential to Jewish cultural life than synagogue attendance, no matter at what level of Jewish observance.

Non-Orthodox Jewish educational institutions should take the daf yomi example as an inspiration for their own efforts to make the study of Jewish texts more accessible and inspirational to a broader audience. Perhaps it should also motivate them to lend greater support to such projects as the Steinsaltz English translation of the Talmud, which was expressly designed to reach beyond the Orthodox world, and still awaits completion.



It sounds OK to me, provided 2 criteria:

  1. Those who learn it first consider the Talmud, and all of Torah Shebe'al Peh in general, as coming from Moshe at Sinai.
  2. Those who learn it don't corrupt an interpretation in the original texts to fit their warped ideologies.

Let it be the Sam Hahayim - not the Sam Hamavet.

2 Comments:

At Sun Mar 06, 07:54:00 AM 2005, Blogger Jason H. Elbaum said...

Obviously, you can't dictate how someone will teach or learn Gemara, and everyone will take their own attitude with them when the open the text. But I do feel that it's hard to read a lot of Talmud without trying to understand the text on its own terms.

In any case, mitoch shelo lishmah ba lishmah, G-d willing.

 
At Sun Mar 06, 07:54:00 AM 2005, Blogger Jason H. Elbaum said...

Obviously, you can't dictate how someone will teach or learn Gemara, and everyone will take their own attitude with them when the open the text. But I do feel that it's hard to read a lot of Talmud without trying to understand the text on its own terms.

In any case, mitoch shelo lishmah ba lishmah, G-d willing.

 

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