Tuesday, December 05, 2006

A Must Read

This post over on Chana's blog is an absolute must-read. In it, she articulates (far better than I could) exactly why I am such a firm believer in "hard-core" learning (in depth learning from sources)--as opposed to what is commonly referred to as "fluff". Having actually attended a school where they take the opposite approach, she is far more qualified than I am to discuss the issue...though perhaps someday if I ever have free time (haha) I'll have a chance to write about it as well. Meanwhile, though her post is characteristically lengthy, it is well worth taking the time to read--and the comments are fascinating too.

13 comments:

SJ said...

Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with every single statement in Chana's post. However, I think that her overall point is spot-on.

Ezzie said...

Which point? The Gemara one or the other one? The latter point is perfecto...

SJ said...

Ezzie - I don't know exactly what distinction you're drawing within her points...but the main idea that I heartily agree with is the importance of learning from real sources (as opposed to merely teaching based on word-of-mouth), and the fact that hashkafa and halacha must go hand-in-hand.

Ezzie said...

She had a point specifically about how learning Gemara would help, which I disagreed with (there). But amen!

SJ said...

On the gemara issue, I come down in the middle...I think that, as you point out, it is impractical to say that you need to go back to the gemara on every halachic topic that is explored, but I do think that it is important that at least there should be some topics learnt b'iyun, in order for girls to understand the way the halacha progresses, from gemara onward. This is essential to their understanding of the halachic system as a whole. It is for this reason that I think one needs to have both halacha classes (in which you don't always trace the emergence of halacha from the very beginning) and gemara classes (or, if you want to be more politically correct, as my high school did, "Torah she beal peh" classes).

Late night blog stalkers of the world, unite!

Ezzie said...

That could be. That's true for guys, too...

SJ said...

Of course...but for guys, it's already a given that they'll have both gemara and halacha seder.

Ezzie said...

Um, not really.

SJ said...

Ok...then it should be!

Ezzie said...

True! :)

SJ said...

I'm glad we settled that! :)

Ezzie said...

;)

kasamba said...

The comments on her blog were interesting, but so are the ones on yours!