In the News
To Learn and Remember - as featured in the Hamodia
by Joel Rebibo
Ari Shapiro, a computer programmer who lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh, faced a problem that many of us middle-aged baalebatim can relate to: how to make the most of the limited time he has in his day for learning.
"I was learning iyun [Gemara in depth] at nights, but felt there's so much more to learn," says Shapiro, a graduate of Yeshiva University and its semichah program. "Then I started Daf Yomi with the latest cycle and did Brachos and half of Shabbos, but was frustrated because there was no chance to review. I wasn't holding on to anything."
Then he discovered a new program that, on the one hand, covers ground, and on the other, allows for - or to be more accurate, insists on - constant review. It's called Shakla Vetarya Shas, and its ambitious goal is revolutionary: to give baalebatim mastery of Shas.
The founder of the program, Harav Meir Pogrow, who memorized all six sedarim of mishnayos by the age of 12 and finished Shas at the age of 17, is a firm believer that people are capable of much more than they give themselves credit for. "It's about mind-set," he says. "It starts with expectations - what do we expect of ourselves - and commitment."
Rav Pogrow, until recently a Rosh Kollel at Aish HaTorah, was approached three years ago by a group of professionals in their 30s and 40s who were going through a Torah Jew's mid-life crisis. "They were being kovei'ah itim, but they felt they knew nothing - they hadn't made a kinyan in Torah. "I made them an offer. If they would give me two and a quarter hours a day, I would give them mastery of all of Shas."
That was an offer that was too good to refuse for 40 men in Ramat Beit Shemesh, who get together every morning, Sunday through Friday, at 5:30, at the Aish Kodesh shul. When Rav Pogrow has to be abroad - he also heads a kollel/outreach program in Austin,Texas - he delivers the shiur through live, interactive video-conferencing. The program starts with a half hour shiur by Rav Pogrow, followed by an hour of review in chavrusa-learning. The chavrusos commit to an additional 45 minutes some time later in the day that is convenient for them.
"The point of the shiur is that when they're done they are already in chazara [review] mode," explains Rav Pogrow. "They're reviewing, not learning. They have limited time. If they had to learn it by themselves, it would take them four to five times as long." In his shiur, Rav Pogrow stays focused on the flow of the Gemara, explaining what the sugya will be grappling with, what is the central difficulty and the various approaches for dealing with it, and only then actually reads the text and translates its.
At the shiur I attended last week (on Bava Metzia, 19b), he began by connecting the gemara back to the mishnah and by keeping his listeners, including a 12-year-old boy and his father, aware of where we were holding. He not only related what was going to follow, but managed to review the content of the amud several times. "In the shiur itself we review five or six times," he acknowledges.
But of course that's not enough to master the Gemara. In the following hour, the members of the shiur will review the amud three times with their chavrusos, focusing on understanding the flow, as well as the names of the Amora'im being quoted.The program also calls for them to review the previous day's amud.
A big part of the program's success is its structure. Rav Pogrow issues a table that shows his students what they should be reviewing each day. At the end of the week, on Motzaei Shabbos or Sunday, they have a written test on what they've learned (which includes material from previous weeks). At the end of every 20 daf or so, they take a week off for intensive review and a written test. The same thing happens after units of 50 daf and when the masechta is completed. All tests are cumulative.
"We started in March 2005 and have learned Chagigah, Beitzah, Kesubos, Makkos, and Rosh Hashanah. In the two and half years since we learned Chagigah, the members of the shiur have reviewed it 100 times; they've reviewed Beitzah 80 times. Most participants can review a daf in seven and a half minutes. If you're familiar with a daf gemara and never let it go, it's like reading Ashrei."
But aren't these former yeshivah students frustrated at not having the opportunity to slow down and learn at greater depth? "My initial target audience were the Daf Yomi-goers who had already resigned themselves to the fact that they're not learning iyun," Rav Pogrow answers. "But they are very motivated because they're coming away really knowing masechtos. It may be a struggle to get up at 5:30 a.m., but there's not one guy who doesn't believe that if he perseveres he won't know Shas."
Let's define terms. What do you mean by "know Shas"? What's your expectation of the members of the shiur, in terms of how they know the daf?
Like in every educational system, you have an "A" to "F" curve. Our "A" students can close the gemara and recite by heart the content of the entire masechta, including the names of the man d'amrim. An "A" caliber guy, and we have many, baruch Hashem, who started with us two and a half years ago, now knows five masechtos and can recite them daf after daf.
And the "C" student - which is most of us?
He has developed a fluency that allows him to review thematerial at a rate of seven daf an hour. And what's wonderful is that he loves doing it. Most people relate to chazara as a great chore because they're frustrated that they're having to struggle with something they already learned and once knew.
Last Thursday, at the shiur I attended, we learned daf 19b in Bava Metzia. How many times will the participants review that amud?
If they follow my schedule, and most of them do, they'll have gone over it at least 13 times by the time they take the test on Sunday, three days later. Gemara that they learned earlier in the week they'll have reviewed 17 to 20 times.
And what about further down the line? How many times will they end up reviewing the daf?
Since we learned Chagigah, the learners have reviewed the masechta well over 60 times, some as many as 100.
Aren't there certain sugyos that don't lend themselves to this kind of quick half-hour shiur? I attend a shiur and we're learning Sanhedrin, 28a. It's complicated because it deals with ...
... degree of relatives that can testify against one another. A rishon and a shlishi, a sheni and a sheni ...
Right. ... My question was, do you ever make use of written teaching aides, like diagrams or charts, in presenting the material as quickly and clearly as possible?
I can't draw anything but stick figures, but I have the ability to conceptually develop a picture for people. I start by developing a concept, because often the language is what trips people up. I define the concept first; then they can easily substitute the difficult words with applications that are familiar. Everyone has a cousin or an uncle, something familiar that they can apply.
Isn't it a bit dry to stick to the questions and answers on the page? Sometimes it's impossible to understand pshat without Rishonim. How do you stay focused on pshat, keep it interesting, and resist the temptation to veer off into all kinds of other venues?
I try to anticipate what any person with a curious mind will need to know to understand the sugya. I blend in just enough Rishonim and try to preempt questions rather than answer them after they're asked. I know my group. I can anticipate what's likely to bother them. Preempting questions is critical so that the rest of the group doesn't get lost. Sometimes the question is something that we're going to see in the next day or so. In that case, I'll indicate that there is a logical difficulty, but that it will be answered by the Gemara shortly. Other times, I'll raise the question, but leave it unanswered, indicating that it's beyond the scope of the shiur. By mentioning the question that someone has on his mind I remove an obstacle to his ability to focus.
It Starts With a Goal
The shiur, which is given in English and available for downloading at www.mastertorah.com, has a positive energy that is obvious to even the casual observer. Practically no one comes late, despite the early hour, and no one dozes off. The very fact that 40 people get up to make an hour-and-a-half commitment to learning before davening and going to work says a lot about how much the shiur means to them.
"It starts my day off in a very positive way," says Akiva Leibowitz, a criminal attorney from Boston. "It gives it structure. The whole Meir Pogrow technique is a good fit for me. I go very fast - that's how it was for me in law school - and try to cover ground. But I've also reviewed Kesubos - that's 112 blatt - two times, and we'll see it five more times in our review schedule while we learn the current mesechta. The key is seeing it enough that it becomes second nature to learn that daf."
Leibowitz, who says that the shiur has also helped him set roots in Eretz Yisrael, giving him a social circle of learners and their families, makes his living through investments in the United States and works on "American time." That leaves him, and a group of about 10 others, with a chance to learn from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"We take apart the gemara we learned that morning, using Rishonim and Acharonim," he says. "It's a great opportunity to combine bekius and iyun in our day." (Leibowitz stresses that his wife has had a major role to play in his success in learning."When I leave home at 5:20 a.m. and don't come home till after davening, that means that she has to take care of getting four kids off to school by herself," he says, expressing a sentiment that is echoed by all the shiur members I spoke with.)
Rabbi Joel Landau was a congregational Rabbi in Irvine, Calif., before making aliyah three years ago. He says that the Shakla Vetarya program has not only improved his retention, but has enhanced his love for learning.
"You know, you can't learn on Tisha B'Av, but I never appreciated what a loss that was until I joined this program," he says. He adds that another key in the success of the program is the model that Rav Pogrow provides. "We have role models who show us that it can be done, that you can master Shas," he says, adding that Rav Pogrow has reviewed Shas more than 25 times. "We know it's attainable, everyone according to his own level. We've seen an enormous change in our kinyan Torah.
"It starts with a goal. Everyone should be seeking to upgrade and feel a responsibility to know to the best of his ability what he's learning and to be able to answer the question, 'What did I learn today?' "Some of us will remember the names of all the Amora'im, other will know where the sugya is and will have strong familiarity with the daf. Each person attains fluency according to his own level."
When the shiur, which includes a mix of dentists, lawyers, doctors and accountants, finished their second masechta, Beitzah, they held a grand siyum to which they invited the entire community. A panel of 12 Rabbanim and 250 guests fired questions at the members of the shiur, who managed to answer them all successfully. One question was: "List all the times in Beitzah in which Reb Yehuda and Reb Shimon have an argument regarding muktzah." Could they answer it? Without looking inside the gemara? Well, let's put it this way. Rav Pogrow had offered a new full-size Shas to anyone who could stump the members of his shiur. "We took the Shas home at the end of the evening after more than 100 questions had been directed at the participants," he proudly notes.
Thanks to technology, you don't have to live in Ramat Beit Shemesh to participate in the program. There are roughly 200 people who are downloading shiurim throughout Eretz Yisrael, the United States, South Africa, Canada, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina and Hong Kong. Two baalebatim in Topeka, Kansas or Nashville,Tennessee can see the shiur on video, download the chart listing the review schedule and then download the weekly test questions.
"One of our shiur members was traveling on a plane and he spent all his time learning," relates Rav Pogrow. "A Stoliner chassid was sitting next to him and was curious about what he was doing.When he heard about the program, he was so taken by the idea that he joined us."
One of the highlights for the members of the shiur are the meetings that Rav Pogrow arranges for them with Harav Ahron Leib Steinman in Bnei Brak. "On our first visit, Rav Steinman gave them an hour and a half of his time, asking them maybe 100 questions," says Rav Pogrow, the obviously proud "father" of the group.
The starting point, Rav Pogrow reiterates, is expectation. If a person doesn't believe he has a chance of really knowing Shas, then he'll make do with an hour a day at a Daf Yomi shiur, without investing the time to review the material, and live with the frustration of forgetting the vast majority of what he's learned. But if he is willing to stretch and make a serious (but doable) commitment to make a kinyan in Torah, then Rav Pogrow offers a program that works. "I tell a 35-year-old, give me 22 years and I'll give you Shas," he says.
December 04 , 2007
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