I should mention that I had a Jewish education from about 5 years old and onward. The only interruption was after my bar mitzvah in Temple Israel in Hollywood. The pressures from school were building up, and there also was some kind of pressure about paying more money monthly to the Temple, and some kind of commitment in order to have my brother Keith "Bar Mitzvahed" there. So we quit the Temple, and when it came time for Keith's bar mitzvah we found a person from the Re-constructionist movement (Roth). [Kind of like Reform. In some ways more open, and in other ways more interested in tradition.] My parents also were undergoing, as usual, financial strain. My Dad was pretty sure after his project at TRW with satellites and lasers was finished- that he would be laid off so he quit before that.
He did not know it at the time but there was a person in the company that was stealing the secrets of American Technology and selling them to the KGB. That became a book and later a motion picture.
After High School it made sense to me to learn Gemara, so I went to NY to Shar Yashuv of Reb Freifeld, and after that to the Mir in NY. Both amazing yeshivas. The Mir was more interested in Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's kind of learning, and Shar Yashuv was more interested in the type of learning you can see in my two little books on Talmud--"calculating the sugia"
After High School it made sense to me to learn Gemara, so I went to NY to Shar Yashuv of Reb Freifeld, and after that to the Mir in NY. Both amazing yeshivas. The Mir was more interested in Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's kind of learning, and Shar Yashuv was more interested in the type of learning you can see in my two little books on Talmud--"calculating the sugia"
and delving into depth about what Tosphot means in his place.
[I should also mention that I was very interested at the time in learning the Tur, Beit Joseph. I mean the way law is derived from the Gemara. That was in fact my major motivation in going to yeshiva.]
Here are a few ideas I had in learning Talmud [Gemara] for those who might be interested.
[I should also mention that I was very interested at the time in learning the Tur, Beit Joseph. I mean the way law is derived from the Gemara. That was in fact my major motivation in going to yeshiva.]
Here are a few ideas I had in learning Talmud [Gemara] for those who might be interested.
[These books mainly reflect the kind of learning I was doing in Shar Yashuv.]
PS The only good yeshivas in those days were the Litvak yeshivas in NY (Mir, Chaim Berlin, Torah VeDaat) and Ponovitch in Bnei Brak and that still seems to be the case. [I have not seen or heard of any exception except perhaps Brisk in Jerusalem.]
