It occurred to me that knowing "how to learn" is not complicated concept. It simply means "Don't skim." That is:- there is a time to skim, and that is the second seder, the afternoon session. But skimming is not knowing how to learn. Mainly knowing how to learn means to learn Tosphot and to understand what he is saying.
It definitely does not mean to look up the Mahrasha or any rishonim or achronim or the Tur, Beit Joseph. Looking up these things is perhaps worthy and good,-- but it is not "knowing how to learn" which is to learn and understand the Gemara and Tosphot on the page. For that reason it is the custom in any decent yeshiva to spend about a week or two on every page of Gemara because that is about how long it takes to get even the simple idea of what is going on on the page.
(Looking up achronim or rishonim is the equivalent of freshman learning.)
Knowing how to learn is what all rishonim [authorities of the Middle Ages] and achronim [authorities after and including Rav Yoseph Karo] thought people were already doing when they wrote their books. But now this essential thing is skipped and no one notices because people that teach Torah are mainly from the Sitra Achra and are not teaching Torah from the realm of holiness.
It definitely does not mean to look up the Mahrasha or any rishonim or achronim or the Tur, Beit Joseph. Looking up these things is perhaps worthy and good,-- but it is not "knowing how to learn" which is to learn and understand the Gemara and Tosphot on the page. For that reason it is the custom in any decent yeshiva to spend about a week or two on every page of Gemara because that is about how long it takes to get even the simple idea of what is going on on the page.
(Looking up achronim or rishonim is the equivalent of freshman learning.)
Knowing how to learn is what all rishonim [authorities of the Middle Ages] and achronim [authorities after and including Rav Yoseph Karo] thought people were already doing when they wrote their books. But now this essential thing is skipped and no one notices because people that teach Torah are mainly from the Sitra Achra and are not teaching Torah from the realm of holiness.
