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I just remembered that I do know the answer to this question. In Eruvin 54, much advice is given on the topic, including:
Learn out-loud -- Rabbi Shmuel said to Rav Yehuda: "Open your mouth when you learn written or oral Torah, in order that you will remember it and live a long time." Also, Rabbi Yitzhok said, "Torah is close to you when it is [audible] ...
13
The Gemara in Gittin 60b says
דברים שבכתב אי אתה רשאי לאומרן על פה
Matters that were written you may not express them orally.
This is codified in Shulchan Aruch O.C. 49:1.
However, this rule only applies to reciting it orally (and even that is subject to much debate. See the commentators there. There's also a nice Wikipedia article as well as numerous ...
12
Rav Sa'adya Gaon writes in Emunot V'deot (Ma'amar 2 s.v. v'hinei ani) that in reference to God, remembrance refers to salvation:
ובהצלת הברואים מענין שמצער אותם קוראים אותו זכירה, שאמרו (בראשית ח' א') ויזכר אלהים את נח. (שם ל' כ"ב) ויזכר אלהים את רחל והדומה לזה
And saving creatures from something that afflicts them, this is called "remembrance". As ...
11
The Tif'eres Yisra'el (Bo'az, Avos 1:15) gives five points for success in learning and improving the memory:
Not to learn lazily (lying down, leaning, or eating when learning), and not to concentrate on things other than learning. A person should learn out loud to fix this. The gemara tells a story of someone who learned quietly and forgot all his learning ...
10
Horiyos 13b - olive oil is good for the memory. Also dipping the fourth finger in salt prior to Birchas haMazan and licking off the salt.
Yerushalmi Brachos Chapter 5 Halacha 1 - learning inside a Sefer is good for the memory.
Otzar Segulos page 9 - saying Zicharon L'Maaseh Braishis at Kiddush having in mind to help your memory.
Chagiga 9b learning 101 ...
7
The Talmud, Pesachim 112a, says:
דאמר מר גרוש שנשא גרושה ארבע דעות במטה
When a divorcé marries a divorcée, there are four minds in the bed
Rashbam explains that each participant is thinking about their first partner:
בשעת תשמיש זה לבו לאשתו ראשונה וזאת לבעלה הראשון
This would seem to indicate that you never forget the people you were intimate ...
7
Yaavetz address this. He suggests that the tipcha on the word לא in לא תשכח hints to an allowance to mention the name in order to remember Torah. In accordance to the Gemara 'to bring the disgusting one into the study hall', in order to release the holy sparks that are contained within.
He also points to the Gemara stating Haman's children taught Torah in ...
6
If you don't know his mother's name, you can use his father's name (Aruch Hashulchan 119:1, Orchos Rabeinu Vol 1, p 64).
If you don't know his mother or father's name, you can use the surname (family name) (R' Chaim Kanievsky in Ishei Yisrael p734).
If you don't know the person's proper Hebrew name, you can use an English name or a nickname that resembles ...
6
I think that this Gemara is what you are looking for, despite that it is not exactly the same words. The issue is the strenght of the alliance into which the wife enter with her husband.
Sanhedrin 22b:
R'Samuel B'Unya said in the name of Rab: A woman [before marriage] is a shapeless lump, and concludes a covenant only with him who transforms her [into] ...
6
Maybe what you are looking for is about a man never forgetting his first wife in San. 22a:
א"ר שמואל בר נחמן לכל יש תמורה חוץ מאשת נעורים שנא' (ישעיהו נד, ו) ואשת נעורים כי תמאס מתני לה רב יהודה לרב יצחק בריה אין אדם מוצא קורת רוח אלא מאשתו ראשונה שנא' (משלי ה, יח) יהי מקורך ברוך ושמח מאשת נעוריך
Rav Shmuel bar Nachman said, "for everything there ...
6
In a personal letter Rav Chaim Kanievsky wrote to me that one should wait thirty days between one "eating" of olives and the next "eating" so that one shouldn't be "ragil ba'zeisim." He said however that dipping the olives in olive oil is sufficient to remove the problem of eating olives altogether.
6
You have the niggun of the Rav Zilberman. In Kol Halashon who was a fervent supporter of mishnayot memorization.
5
Say first passuk three times in the "Chumash side"
Say it once in the "Torah side"
2a. If you have it, proceed to step 3
2b. If not, repeat steps 1 and 2 until you have it
Learn the next passuk, using steps 1 and 2
Once you've learned five pessukim like that, read them all in the Torah side, once
4a. Fix any problems with those five pessukim
At the end of an ...
5
@MonicaCellio's answer is great; I would just like to add my personal experience.
Now that I've been laining for a while, my process has changed, but back when I was learning everything for the first time, I would break the laining into chunks. I used half-column chunks, but you can do whatever size works for you. There is no better substitute than simple ...
5
First, if you don't yet understand how the main trope "sentences" work, it'll help if you learn those. If you're memorizing tropes one at a time (mercha... tifchah... etnachta... tevir...), you're doing a lot more work than if you recognize the first three as an etnachta clause sans munach. This is the difference between learning to read text a letter at a ...
5
The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains that there are three opinions as to what "Pen Tishkach" prohibits:
Rambam doesn't count it as a Mitzva at all. Moreover, according to the Rambam, one doesn't have to learn Svara, just the final Halacha, so forgetting Bavli would be fine.
Ramban says it refers to the giving of the Torah, and the Drash in Avos is an Asmachta and ...
4
R Jonathan Rietti has an excellent book on Torah learning called the One minute masmid. In appendix D (p. 241) he brings 43 strategies recommended by Chazal to improve memory - with their sources. Here are the first 10 of those, see the book for more
Constantly review your learning
Read your learning out loud
Sing your learning
Engage your mind in the words ...
3
Rav Arieh Yehuda from Modena wrote a wonderful book called Lev Haarie about the issue and in his introduction he addressed the midrasdim examples, Tora niknet besimanim etc..
The Shaar in Hebrew books
He uses a technic called zikaron hamekomi, which is not a Jewish/torah royalty
The better mnemonics are always the mnemonic you invented yourself.
To ...
3
The passage that you are likely thinking of (as Yishai suggested) is in the Rambam's letter to the sages of Lunel, and can be found in Iggerot haRambam II, p503 (link). There are other letters as well, in which he claims to have forgotten the source of a halakha, is unsure as to whether or not he has included all of the relevant information, or admits to the ...
3
ספר שי לתורה quotes an interesting פשט from R’ Simcha Ziskind Broide from Chevron:
R' Zera recognised that he wouldn't be able to learn properly with the new approach and svaros of Eretz Yisrael if he was preoccupied with that of Bavel.
He uses that as a lesson that we need to leave the past behind us at times in order to move on to the next level.
(Sorry ...
3
I originally used what i call the "brute force" method, because i don't "chunk" it at all. What i do is:
Read the whole aliyah a few times on the chumash side of the tikkun.
Start looking on the Torah side; check back to the chumash side often. (repeat a couple times)
Try reading the whole thing only on the Torah side, but don't cover the chumash yet, in ...
3
Shaare Efrayim 10:27 indicates it's not said on 9 Av.
3
Siddur Rabenui Hazakain 198 says that the order is based on the way it is mentioned in Ahavas Olam and Kriyas Shema.
First is Yetziyas Mitzrayim which is the entire basis of Kriyas Shema.
Second is Har Sinai for the words Uvanu Bacharta
Third is Amalek for the words Lshimcha Hagadol
Fourth is Aigel for the words Uliyachedcha Bahava
...
3
I would suggest two points:
Necessity is the mother of invention. We have the the gemara and meforshim written down, printed, and readily available, and even readily searchable via online repositories; so we feel less pressure to learn them by heart. In contrast, IIRC, in the shtetlach in Europe there was frequently only a single Shas in the entire town; ...
3
The Magen Avaham (OH 2:3) references Shaar HaKavanot of R. Hayyim Vital which states that one should not put on two items of clothes at the same time, as it can make one forget:
ויזהר מללבוש ב' מלבושים יחד בפעם א' כי קשה לשכחה (הכוונות)
One should be careful not to don two garments together at one time, for it can cause forgetfulness (Shaar ...
3
It's not an elegant thing to post an answer to my own question, but based on Double AA's comment I could eventually find something interesting – even though I'm quite convinced that the artist was not aware of this. In Yerushalmi there's a discussion at Megillah 3:2, whether one should sell the property of the community to a private person. In the Gemarah it ...
2
Besides dividing it in chunks, as mentioned in other answers, I also record myself after I'm mostly clear, to see if i made any silly OR tricky mistakes, including in the intonation or grammar.
2
As much as it is theoretically possible to have divine assistance in keen comprehension, and to invest effort in memorization, memorization is more conceptually linked to divine assistance and keen comprehension is more conceptually linked to effort invested.
לאוקמא גירסא, to establish the text [in one's mind], is the act of assimilating the information of ...
2
The Baal HaTanya, in his introduction to his Shaar HaYichud V'Emunah, talk about this idea with regards to the verse in Mishlei 24:16,
"For a righteous man can fall seven times and rise".
There he explains that when a Tzaddik advances from one level to another, "Between one level and the next, before he can reach the higher one, he is in a state of ...
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