I have been considering how to implement the advice of my son, Izhak, about the importance of learning in depth. And besides that, the subject came up in a conversation where I pointed out that Rav Nahman of Breslov himself says learning by "just reading the words and going on" is "judgments"[problems and tribulations] while learning in depth is "sweetening of judgments"(lessening of the problems), [Le.M. vol. I, chapter 74] The way [best] is to make a little progress in the book you are learning, and then go backwards to every previous section, Then when you have gotten back to the beginning, then start again at that place you left off at, and then go on one more section.
[But this depends on the subject. If it is the book like the Avi Ezri, or Reb Chaim of Brisk, then the best thing is to review that one section for about a month. That is to go through it from start to finish every day for a month. If it a book like math [where each section builds on the previous] then the above advice applies. Do one chapter forward, and then go backward to the beginning...
[Rav Shick in fact did not hold solely of fast learning as many assume. There was one student I recall who went through Shas every month [i.e., about 100 pages [per day] and Rav Shick told him "Enough already. It is time to start doing in depth learning.'' And also he told people after they had been through one tractate to not go on, but to finish it 101 times.]
[I think that I ought to bring up here the idea of "Bitul Torah", the sin of not learning when you can. This you must have noticed is not widely regarded as a sin at all, much less a very severe sin. I myself think that I might have sinned in this regard. And I think the industrial-spiritual complex that makes money by using Torah as a means to extract money from the government does not either consider "bitul Torah" as the sin it actually is, They are just using Torah to make money and get power. ]
[However, I do agree that many Litvak yeshivot are great--but not all. The best obviously is Ponovitch where Rav Shach was.]
[If I could I would also recommend Tosphot, but I am convinced that no one understands Tophot--especially when they thin they do. That is unless you have that ort of head like Naphtali Yegeer in my first yeshiva SharYahuv or the learning partner I had in Uman David Bronson. Or if you commit to doing one Tosphot every day for about 40 days in a row. Then sometimes one can tart to see the depth of Tosphot]
