Why I Learned the Shas in One Year for BeEzrat HaShem by Rabbi Adam Sommer

0:00I'm recording this, Bezrat Hashem, for their program on learning the Shas in one year, and I did that. Somebody might say, well, why did you do that? Why would you put in so much time learning the Bavli Shas in one year? I get great inspiration from the Dubno Maggid, who is a great communicator about Torah in his book, Ohel Yaakov. In explaining the opening verses of The Torah, where it talks about in the beginning Hashem created the heavens and the earth, is a great insight into why somebody should want to learn Shas, why a Jewish man should want to learn Shas, and why a Jewish woman should want to encourage her husband to go learn Shas, and to go learn all the scripture necessary in order to build the foundation, in order to start working on Gemara and Mishnah and Talmud.

1:15So, the Dubno Maggid says like this. He says that the Torah is really in three parts. And he says, as an allegory, when Hashem is giving the tablets to Moshe, and again, Hashem doesn't have hands, but the Luchos, it's as if it was split into thirds, where the hand of Moshe was on the tablet, there was a part that didn't have any hand on it, and then there was a part... that had Hashem's hand on it. And again, Hashem does not have hands, not anthropomorphic, we don't believe in that. But, again, it's allegorical. The idea that the Degel Machaneh Efraim says is that the Torah has the portion like what Moshe Rabbeinu had his hand on, which is the Torah about the 613 mitzvot. It's what you will do, what you will not do, and what was received by Moshe. He then says, and this is the part like what the Shas has, right? It's the part that is concealed. It's not for everybody. It's for the people who put in the work to go learn it. And that is the Torah that has the secrets. The explanations of the 613 mitzvot, the halachot on how it works, how it's put together, why you're doing the mitzvah, and the deeper parts about the tradition on everything about the sages' explanation about what Moshe Rabbeinu got. That is the concealed Torah that the Dofen of Maggid says, and that in itself is worth doing.

2:25the explanations of the 613 mitzvot, the halachot on how it works, how it's put together, why you're doing the mitzvah, and the deeper parts about the tradition on everything about the sages' explanation about what Moshe Rabbeinu got. That is the concealed Torah that the Degel Machaneh Ephraim says, and that in itself is worth doing. It is beautiful, it is rich, it is exciting, it is intellectually stimulating. And then there's the third part. The sages say in very poetic language that this is reserved for the tzaddikim who sat and learned and put in the time to toil. This is going to be the type of Torah that exists either just learning Torah with Hashem in Shamayim or later on when We have the explanations from the Mashiach ben David and all of that Torah that comes. And this is saved away, as they say, like from the wine created in the six days. That's how the sages phrase it from Bereshit Rabbah. That's what the people who put in the effort and the time, that's what they're going to be learning. That's saved for later.

3:45Now, I want to be in the category of people who are sitting and learning today, understanding the secrets and all the details of how the laws are put together, and comprehending what's going on with the Torah and Jewish law, and how to start thinking about it. That in itself is a worthwhile endeavor to spend a lifetime on. a beautiful lifetime endeavor. And that is why I learned the Shas in a year with B'ezrat Hashem's program. One of the minor Masechtot talks about learning the Gemara. and in it, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai says, and this is in Avot de-Rabbi Natan, he says that someone should not learn the Gemara unless they really understand the Scripture. In other words, they are understanding the part that the Dubno Maggid says, which is talked about like with Moshe Rabbeinu's hand, that this is really the Chumash. This is the Torah. This is the Written Torah. In other words, you need to sit down with Rashi,

4:48sit down with the Torah and start going through it, get an ArtScroll, start going through it with a commentary by Rashi and the Ramban, and start looking at it, start getting a sense of it. And after you have that foundation, then you can start to look at Mishnah and the Gemara. Every Jewish man should put effort into doing it. Find a Daf Yomi program and do it. And I want to highlight something that I think is interesting. The end of the Shas, in Nidah, I guess around page 67, 68, 69, it talks about a story that seems like, yeah, whatever, right? But nothing is accidental. Nothing is "whatever" in the Gemara. It's very serious. And the end of the Shas talks about something, another reason why it's worthwhile to go learn the Shas and how to start thinking about life itself and why you should care about it, why I care about it. There's a story with a Tanna who was approached by a bunch of Greeks who from Alexandria, which was a city that was founded by Alexander the Great. And who was Alexander the Great's teacher? It was Aristotle. They come and they give 12 questions to the Jewish sages. And they're really a dig at Judaism. And it's really, says the Maharsha, on three of the 12 questions, really they're highlighting the differences between Judaism and Greek thinking, Greek philosophy. As the Rambam explains, that Aristotelian philosophy is the height of Greek philosophy.

6:13all of the thinking of the non-Jewish world in terms of just raw intelligence and what you can derive through just sitting and thinking, right? Judaism doesn't have that. We have divine revelation to get access to different kinds of knowledge, right? Greeks don't have that. Questions like, how does somebody make a boy if you want to have a boy child? This, by the way, if you've learned in college like Aristotle's biology, you'll see really what they're asking, right? They're asking, non-Jewish world in terms of just raw intelligence and what you can derive through just sitting and thinking, right? Judaism doesn't have that. We have divine revelation to get access to different kinds of knowledge, right? Greeks don't have that. Questions like, how does somebody make a boy if you want to have a boy child? This, by the way, if you've learned in college like Aristotle's biology, you'll see what they're really asking, right? They're asking, How is this species propagated? They're asking other questions like from Nicomachean Ethics, which is also written by Aristotle, questions like, how does somebody get rich? That's one of the questions they ask the Jewish sages. How does somebody get rich? They're highlighting that, you know, Hashem has a different role in Aristotelian thinking versus Jewish thinking. In Jewish thinking, we have a God that is actively involved in creation. And in Aristotelian thinking, you have a God that created something, and it runs, and it's very much hands-off. After He created it, it's like a watchmaker where the watch just runs. Judaism doesn't have that concept at all.

7:29And also with the propagation of species, right? Aristotle is saying that, oh, well, the species are just sort of put out there and they run, right? In Judaism, they're saying like, well, no, you have a God that's interacting. You can pray. You can pray for a son. And that's, again, another difference. Another question that they're talking about is they're talking about Aristotle's four causes, right? They're saying, oh, well, Lot's wife, Lot's wife, became a pillar of salt. And was she something different? Was she still a human after she became a pillar of salt? And the Greeks say, she was still a human. The Jewish sages are saying, no, she became something else. Hashem is actively involved in the creation and actively created her as that. They have a follow-up question. He said, well, is she Tamei? And that's also another difference, right? There's no idea of Tumah. Another question that they have is resurrection of the dead, right? They have no such concept. It's completely alien. She was still a human. The Jewish sages are saying, no, she became something else. Hashem is actively involved in the creation and actively created her as that. They have a follow-up question. He said, well, is she Tamei? And that's also another difference, right? There's no idea of Tumah. Another question that they have is the resurrection of the dead, right? They have no such concept. It's completely alien. in Greek thinking. Why would the sages end the Shas like that? Because the Jewish story, the Jewish philosophy, the Jewish way of life is fundamentally different from everything else, and it should be. And if you're doing it the way the sages say, the way the Halacha says, you are promised a better existence, really a better existence.

8:54And that is why I encourage every Jewish man and every Jewish woman to get into a structured learning program. Go to a seminary. There are continuing education seminaries for ladies that are older. You can find them online in Har Nof. Also for men. Go to a yeshiva. Start learning in a yeshiva every day. Work and learn part-time. And you can start to get access to this way of thinking that is fundamentally different, beautiful, and real. It is worth doing. That is why I learned the Shas in a year with B'ezrat Hashem's program, and why I encourage every Jewish man to start learning. getting into serious structure in our learning because it will make your life better. You have my word, it will.