Getting a handle on Torah study

The blessings that learning Torah brings to ones life is unlimited. Some say finding time is a problem. Rabbi Avigdor Miller suggested that all you need to find is 15 minutes.  If one learns for 15 minutes and truly enjoys it, he will automatically find that another half hour was added to his day...

When I was a bochur in yeshiva one of my teachers saw me sitting on one tosfos (it was small) for 3 days.  He said: "Betzalel, the gemara is not a pilpul sefer".  I didn't take his words to heart.   

Over the years I continued to write and published some of it.  

I really enjoyed the in-depth study.  Yet I always felt that I was so empty of Torah.  Yes, I have flipped a lot of pages but didn't really retain much.  It was often very depressing that I would learn 40 pages of gemara and barely remember any of it.

I was involved in chinuch for 4 years, teaching gemara to 9th and 10th graders.   This frustration was often voiced. "We learn so much, yet come out with so little. Even when I review it a few times I don't really remember it after a few weeks".

This point was actually made over 400 years ago by the Maharsha on his commentary to Temura 16. He said: "One of the main reasons people give up learning is due to frustration over forgetting what they have learned". 

I found some hope.  I would like to share it with you.

Everyone talks about review.  The key is doing a proper review. What is a proper review? A proper review is a lifetime of review. 

Check out this program that can change your life, as it has for many.  Taking "chazara" to a whole new level.  The success stories include 10 year old and 80 year olds.  It is based on scientific research.  

I believe those that are looking to turn their 15 minutes a day of learning into more - by pumping it with some "geshmak", should take a serious look at this program.  

[As a side note, those that follow the rulings of the Alter Rebbe - the Baal HaTanya, have even more reason for investing more time into chazara. For his ruling puts the prohibition of forgetting Torah on even one that doesn't do a proper review.  See more on that here.] 

Rabbi Twerksi and the Lubavitcher Rebbe on kosher meditation

I saw Rabbi Dr. Tweski last Shabbos in Pittsburgh. I was a bit unsure about what I was about to do, but I did it anyway. I had recently read an interview with him, and he said some things that I wanted to clarify. 

He said: “He [the Rebbe] also suggested that meditation could be very therapeutic, but that we needed to develop meditation in accordance with Judaism, not based on Oriental religions. I told the Rebbe that it was early in psychiatric training, and I was not familiar with meditation but would look into it when I had the opportunity. And later I received a three-page letter from the Rebbe on meditation.”

[The Rebbe talks here on the topic of kosher meditation].

Reading this reminded me of another interview that Rabbi Twerski gave to Rabbi Chaim Dalfin printed in his book “Conversations with the Rebbe”. There (I don’t have the book on hand to quote from) Rabbi Twerski said that he didn't end up getting too involved in meditation and he even lost the letter the Rebbe sent him on the topic.

Him losing the Rebbe’s letter was on my mind when I approached him last Shabbos. I respectfully asked him if the story was true. I said is it true that you lost the letter from the Lubavitcher Rebbe on meditation! (I said Lubavitcher Rebbe because he is not a Lubavitcher.) He said to me: “The Rebbe (he didn't say Lubavitcher) didn't send me a letter on meditation, rather he had a scholarly paper from some journal, to which he added some notes”.

I then said that I have read some of his books, and my favorite are the ones with daily meditations…

There are so many different kinds of meditations. I like to keep it simple. I even stopped calling it meditation. I call it quiet time, with myself and Hashem. I try to do it every morning and night. For me it is probably the most important part of my day.

[On the topic of Twerski and the Rebbe, it’s known that the Rebbe encouraged him to move from Pittsburgh to NY to help frum Jews. He didn't want to go. He claimed he would have no time to learn Torah if he would be living in NY. In the end he moved from Pittsburgh to NY and continues to help 1000’s of yidden. And he seems to have much time to write and learn. I think he’s on his 60th book or something.]

I’ll give a shout out to Rus Devorah Wallen whom I admire very much. She is doing a lot of work with kosher meditation.  Check out her website.

See this interesting video (at 1:45)where Rabbi Twerskey brings his grandchildren to the Rebbe and the Rebbe blesses his that they wont need his services.  The Rebbe then asked him to send him his seforim.