I have a few questions about the proper path in life. The reason is that I found that I have certain limitation in my abilities. That is I follow the law of limited returns. I can concentrate on one subject for a long time and never get any further than if I would spend just a minimum amount of time on it.
But there are other people like my ex girlfriend Wendy Wilson who could excel in any subject she choose and the sky was the limit. You probably know some people like that.
For this reason I find myself in a kind of dilemma. It seems as a general rule that unless you are dealing with really brilliant people the best thing is to get a balanced education. That seems to have worked best for me. But there are people that would get distracted by a general education and need to concentrate on one thing alone.
I should mention in the USSR, very young children could choose a path in life at a very early age. They could decide to go into the hard sciences or music or a few other venues. So apparently the Soviets were aware of the advantage for some people to concentrate on one area alone.
That being said I think that in general a balanced approach should be the general rule. Bearing that in mind I would like to recommend this kind of "seder hayom," order of the day.
You start a 9:15 with Halacha. That is you do the Rambam with no commentaries allowed, and you just read straight until 10:00. That will get you through the whole Rambam in less than a year. Then at 10:00 you do Talmud in this fashion. You take one עמוד one side of a page and do it with Rashi Tosphot and some Maharsha and Maharam. That takes about 40 minutes. Then you do another side of a page and you keep on going until 2:00. That will get you through Shas in less than a year. Then at 2:00to 4:00 you have your break and then at 4:00 you go to Brooklyn College to learn natural sciences or even perhaps law. But not any subjects that are pseudo sciences. In Chaim Berlin Yeshiva this was simple because Brooklyn College was right around the corner. But in theory even at the Mir one could do the same by taking a bus down King's Highway. That is for NY. California is sadly an עיר הנידחת and there is as of yet no authentic yeshiva. It takes a lot more to build a yeshiva that to paste a name on a building. All religious establishments in California are branches the yeshiva of the Satan. So I don't recommend them.
But there are other people like my ex girlfriend Wendy Wilson who could excel in any subject she choose and the sky was the limit. You probably know some people like that.
For this reason I find myself in a kind of dilemma. It seems as a general rule that unless you are dealing with really brilliant people the best thing is to get a balanced education. That seems to have worked best for me. But there are people that would get distracted by a general education and need to concentrate on one thing alone.
I should mention in the USSR, very young children could choose a path in life at a very early age. They could decide to go into the hard sciences or music or a few other venues. So apparently the Soviets were aware of the advantage for some people to concentrate on one area alone.
That being said I think that in general a balanced approach should be the general rule. Bearing that in mind I would like to recommend this kind of "seder hayom," order of the day.
You start a 9:15 with Halacha. That is you do the Rambam with no commentaries allowed, and you just read straight until 10:00. That will get you through the whole Rambam in less than a year. Then at 10:00 you do Talmud in this fashion. You take one עמוד one side of a page and do it with Rashi Tosphot and some Maharsha and Maharam. That takes about 40 minutes. Then you do another side of a page and you keep on going until 2:00. That will get you through Shas in less than a year. Then at 2:00to 4:00 you have your break and then at 4:00 you go to Brooklyn College to learn natural sciences or even perhaps law. But not any subjects that are pseudo sciences. In Chaim Berlin Yeshiva this was simple because Brooklyn College was right around the corner. But in theory even at the Mir one could do the same by taking a bus down King's Highway. That is for NY. California is sadly an עיר הנידחת and there is as of yet no authentic yeshiva. It takes a lot more to build a yeshiva that to paste a name on a building. All religious establishments in California are branches the yeshiva of the Satan. So I don't recommend them.
