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For Litvish it's depth, predominantly in the Talmud.

For Chasidim it's breadth of the Talmud and other sources.

Do sephardim have their own unique style of Torah study?

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    Who is it that defines the Official chasidish or litvish style?
    – Double AA ♦
    Jul 2, 2013 at 12:21
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    Edited the question; of course there is no "official" style. I was just curious to what sort of study serious sephardic torah scholars go through.
    – user2953
    Jul 2, 2013 at 13:00
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    Ramin, welcome to Mi Yodeya, and thanks very much for bringing your question here! I hope you'll look around and find other material here that fits your style of learning, perhaps amongst our 78 other questions about sefaradim.
    – Isaac Moses ♦
    Jul 2, 2013 at 14:42

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Wikipedia writes Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's opinion, that a wide knowledge of halacha is dominant over studying useless portions of gemara.

He emphasizes that the Sephardic system of learning, which emphasizes Bkiut (extensive familiarity with the Talmud, Mishna and Poskim), is superior to the Ashkenazi system which relies on deep analysis employing pilpul. This preference is based upon his support for ruling halakha on practical contemporary issues rather than ruling halakha as a purely theoretical pursuit.

Also, in Yalkut Yosef YD Siman 245 Seif 6, Yishak Yosef rules that someone who can only study for 2-3 hours a day should only study Halacha.

Furthermore, Rabbi Abadi has an answer on how to learn Torah, and he starts off by saying the most important thing to do is learn the halachot of everyday life, and only after obtaining a general knowledge of halacha, one should go on to learn Tanach, Mishnah, Gemara, peshat only. After you have an overview of the Torah, you should start learning more in depth, i.e. with perushim.

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  • Good answer....one note, while it's true that he starts off by saying you need halacha, he has a numbered list of other things that one should learn -- you might want to consider expanding this answer to include more of what he wrote there
    – MTL
    Aug 28, 2014 at 13:48
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    "the most important thing to do is learn the halachot of everyday life" - I don't think Ashkenazi Poskim disagree with that point.
    – Yishai
    Aug 28, 2014 at 13:48
  • perhaps Rav Ovadiah is referring to someone who has already learned how to learn. i.e. that he would hold the beginning of one's learning should be in talmud b'iyun
    – ray
    Aug 29, 2014 at 11:37
  • @ray I disagree- I think his point is not to learn useless gemara b'iyun, which has no real use, but instead to focus on halacha. He also notes that someone who only studies Daf Yomi does not fulfill his obligation of talmud torah.
    – 147zcbm
    Aug 29, 2014 at 11:42
  • useless?? ouch.
    – ray
    Aug 30, 2014 at 18:36

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