Torah Study
I wish to share with my readers a certain satisfaction that I’ve had in my Torah study with the lu’ach (calendar) of Chaburas Shas from Lakewood. I don’t really know anything about the people involved in the chabura, even today. But I used to see the lu’ach with the accompanying pink colored explanation popping up from time to time in the shuls in Yerushalayim. I always looked at it with interest, but I never had the internal fortitude to go ahead and do it.
A Person Forgets His Torah Study
The lu’ach works with the principle that there are times that a person forgets his Torah study, the material that he learns, if he doesn’t review it. After a day, after a week, after a month, after three months, after a year. So the system is set up that today you learn today’s material, plus you review yesterday’s material, plus you do a second review of the material you learned a week ago, a third review of what you learned a month ago, and a fourth review of what you learned three months ago. And then each year.
Originally it was set up for a regimen of pages of gemora, that every day you learn five blatt gemora, today’s, yesterday’s, a week ago’s, etc. Lately they answered the request of the masses who are not capable of learning a daf gemora a day, plus reviewing four more pages, and they created a generic lu’ach which you can fill in with whatever you want to learn at whatever pace.
Like I said, this lu’ach with the pink flyer used to pop up from time to time, and about a year ago I took the plunge and started a seder of one mishna a day. It was a side seder, and I wanted something that I thought that I could hold to. A few months later I started a second seder of Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim) three se’eifim a day. Besides Eiruvin I’ve learned basically all of Orach Chaim over the years, so the whole seder is really built on review.
I started with Bava Kama, and I have learned Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, and now I am holding in the eighth perek of Bava Basra. I floundered a couple of months between finishing Bava Metzia and starting Bava Basra, and additionally once in a while I fall behind to the point where I just have to knock off a week, changing for example “Shabbos Bamidbar” on the lu’ach to “Shabbos Naso” just to catch up. But, Boruch Hashem, I have finished Bava Kama with four reviews, and now I am holding in the third perek for the fifth review (the second year), Bava Metzia I have finished with three reviews, and I am holding in HaZahav for the fourth review.
In Shulchan Aruch I will be starting Hilchos Tefilla, siman pay tes, soon, having reviewed through Tefillin four times.
It is almost embarrassing to say that I have a seder of one mishna a day, or three se’eifim a day, but now that I see how it adds up over the long haul, and with constant reviews, I think maybe I would be guilty of hiding a good thing by not openly admitting that I am doing the system with satisfaction.
There are telephone numbers written on the lu’ach for the US, for Israel, and for England. If you are interested, leave a comment and I will send them to you by email. I don’t know whether it is appropriate to publish their telephone numbers without permission, I would rather be safe than sorry.
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