> Please see http://bit.ly/s7hDle
>
> The first part of this article is a moving tribute to Rav Finkel titled
> For Love of Torah and Every Jew
> The second part is titled
> Passion: the Missing Ingredient. It begins with
The op-ed is at
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=244187
Quote from one of the students:
“I don’t understand it,” he added, “I can’t follow the text, and don’t see why we cannot just learn what the halacha is instead.”
For one thing: I came to Talmud study at age 22 or 23. I don't think I would have had the discipline or analytical maturity in high school to do anything but hate it either. I balked at analyzing texts - but that's what Talmud is.
Secondly: I've been dabbling in Jungian typology over the last six months or so. This preference for practical halachah over (abstract) Talmud analysis strikes me as reflective of the intuitive/sensate divide (being sensate). And if my Google stats are accurate, approximately 75% of the population are sensation-preferrers. I love Talmud, and I'm an intuition-preferrer. Go figure.
In my off-the-cuff, humble opinion, Talmud is not for everyone! (Oh look, the Ramchal seems to agree in the hakdamah to Mesilas Yesharim.) I realize that this is antithetical to the yeshiva world, but I suspect that students' attitudes to Torah learning will change if we can avoid this fixation. There are so many modes of learning out there!
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I'd love your input. I'm only accepting constructive remarks that I see as adhering to acceptable halachic standards. If there's any question as to what that means, we can clarify.