New beginnings. I am starting this website because I want to expand my reach to bring more Torah into the world. My title “Talmud 101” is based on the dictum: ואינו דומה שונה פרקו מאה פעמים לשונה פרקו מאה ואחד[חגיגה ט:] “There is no comparison between someone who learns a piece of Torah 100 times to one who learns it 101 times.
I am using this website to start to put Torah out into the world to make it available to more and more people. And I am offering my services as a teacher of Talmud to help those who want to learn how to learn the Talmud.
There is a methodology to the Talmud, but it is not so apparent at first. The Talmud starts in the middle, and expects that you know everything else except for the subject at hand. It’s almost as if the editors of the Talmud wanted to keep things a secret. Yeshivot seem to operate the same way. They toss the Talmidim into the Sea of the Talmud and expect them to swim. There is not much attention given to the methodology of the debate and logic of the Gemara.
My teacher Rav Mordechai Goldstein ז”ל was a firm believer in teaching the methodology, mainly with Derech Tevunot of the Ramchal, Darkei HaTalmud of Rav Yitzchak Kanfanton. I will be presenting these sefarim, and others in how to analyze and understand the methodology of the Talmud. Stay tuned.