How to learn gemara independently

Question

Is there an organized path that a Ba'al Teshuva can follow to learn Gemara and prepare the Daf by himself?

I mean after he is able to learn with Artscroll.

Answer 1

Sit with Jastrow's Aramaic dictionary and Frank's Practical Talmud Dictionary and look up every word and phrase until you start recognising you've looked this up before. This is the way I did it, but unlike every other person I know I enjoy finding words in the dictionary.

If you have the opportunity then full-time learning in a Yeshivah would obviously be best.

Otherwise, regular learning with a partner (or a group) on the same sort of level as you will keep you making progress and provide motivation to continue. A chavrusa with a patient partner on a higher level will also help correct your inadvertent misconceptions.

Personally, I only felt I was able to learn Gemara competently on my own after two years of full-time Yeshivah, starting from scratch.

Finally, the hashkafah I have been taught discourages exploring Acharonim until you are well able to extract the pshat from the Daf, and even then its far from the focus of your learning.

Answer 2

There is a basic way of analyzing the text that should get you "in" to some degree. Identify every statement in the shakle ve tarye according to one of these seven categories.

1. Difficulty
2. Resolution of difficulty.
3. Disproof
4. Proof
5. Question
6. Answer
7. Statement.

II. Understand how each move is achieving its goal. E.g. How did the proof achieve its goal.

III.Make sure each move is relating to the next move. E.g. Is the resolution addressing the difficulty.

Always check the language of each statement for the following: Ι. Superfluous language i.e. wordiness. ΙΙ.Repetition of the same concept. ΙΙΙ. Inconsistency in language. Ιν. Is there a chiddush being stated ? (i..e new idea.) ν. Change in language or change in law.

I have a blogsite where I go into detail in these steps of analysis. http://www.howtolearngemara.com

There is a phenomenal set of audio shiurs that go through the following sefarim

Way of the Talmud i.e. Darchei Hatalmud by Rabbi Yitzchak Ways of reason i.e.Derech tevunot by the Ramchal Book of Logic i.e.Sefer Higayon By the Ramchal Book of Rhetoric

Here is the link

http://learntalmud.org/

Answer 3

According to Rabbi Pogrow, the following method works to remember what one learns:

1. Learn the material once. Either through a Shiur, Artscroll, whatever it takes to know Pshat. One should focus on the structure, where are questions, what are answers, which questions do the answers answer, etc. One should also take note of names (who said what).
2. Review it inside four times. For this one should need only a normal Gemara, because one should already have learned the translations in step one. If one still doesn't remember them, one could look them up. By the end of this session, one should know the Amud.
3. Spend the same amount of time one learned in Shiur in review of material learned in the past week.
4. Spend two days out of the week (he suggests Shabbos and Sunday) as review days. On these two days, do not go ahead. Spend that time reviewing ALL the material one has learned in this program.

There are some more tips over there, but this system does work.

Answer 4

Try to do as much as you can on your own, and only look at Artscroll when you can't understand something. Then make sure to read it again in the gemara on its own. This way, you'll be able to get through gemara, and be able to read it without Artscroll. Using a dictionary will probably take too long. If you want to remember the words, you can always write them down from Artscroll's translation.

(Not that there's anything wrong with learning with Artscroll, but you want to be able to view the gemara on it's own, and anyways, Artscroll is kind of long.)

Answer 5

Organized path, eh? I didn't find anything like that. In my experience I found very few systematic guides on how to actually approach sugyos, including all the assumptions of the Gemara, Talmudic logic, etc. The Ramchal has a couple works which have been translated into English (Feldheim), but they are extremely dry and technical, and relate to the component logic rather than overall approach. There is a famous work by Yitzchak Kampanton (Darchei ha-Gemara) in Hebrew, but I did not find a particularly well-defined derech there. Could be I wasn't patient enough to analyse the Hebrew text.

In retrospect, if you have an analytical mind, get this book and learn up your sugyos with that. Ditto to Michael Sandler on the Frank, but I see it more as a reference - Big Blue (the Feldheim) is more streamlined and good for learning the ropes.

I used Soncino before I was competent in the actual Talmudic language in the original, which is good inasmuch as it gives you the words whilst leaving the logic up to you, as opposed to ArtScroll.

My personal advice: hammer away (long-term) until you understand the standard devices of Talmudic argumentation, and understand the framework of your sugya before you set your eyes to any commentaries. If some piece of the framework eludes you, that's okay; but IMO the Gemara speaks to us on its own without commentaries, even if you/I don't understand all of a particular sugya.

Answer 6

advice: dont learn on your own you are bound to make mistakes. Chavrusa learning is there to prevent mistakes and also be challeneged. Learning gemorah is less about pshat and more about sharpening your midn to think through Torah lense.

In fact the Gemorah in Makkos states that there is an issur to learn alone. It is disputed what this means and where it applies (e.g. some dont hold of it in Eretz Yisroel as the air there sharpens one's mind) however one who learns alonge is boudn to make mistakes.

Learning with an Artscroll is called b;'chavrusa - except it takes away your training to think.

www.dafyomi.co.il is a good resource they also have quizzes that you can use to test yourself on every daf.

Answer 7

Following a link from idaven.com, there's a website dafyomi.org. They have an audio track in English you can listen to for each daf. Be warned that the quality is not 100%, and the Rabbi may sometimes go a bit fast (especially if you're not from a Yeshiva background), but it's a good way to listen to someone talk about the daf each day, from your computer (you can also download the MP3 files and listen to them at your convenience on your music player).

Hatzlacha!