I realize not everyone has the time to go through the entire Talmud while at the same time going to university to learn a vocation. So I thought to myself what could encapsulate in an easy way the basic essence of the Oral Law so that even the simplest person could understand it.
In other words I understand the idea of time limit.
So it occurred to me the best way to do this is to take almost at random any chapter or essay in Rav Shach's Avi Ezri and learn it well in connection with the sources he brings.
You could ask why not Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's Chidushei HaRambam?
First of all because Rav Shach is understandable and even easy to understand once you are familiar with the Gemara and Rambam that he is discussing. Second, I simply think it is a better book. I have great respect for Reb Chaim, but I think Rav Shach saw further and better.
There is a degree you have to trust my judgement on this issue. After all anyone learning any vocation has lots of difference of opinions than his mentors. It is just something that anyone and everyone has to go through to learn any subject properly. You just have to take my word for it until you yourself have gone through Shas and enough poskim rishonim and achronim to see what I am saying.
I had the same doubts when I was learning Gemara. I also thought, "What good is the in-depth learning, when I have not even finished Shas once yet?" Eventually I began to see that people that did not learn in-depth at the beginning of their yeshiva years, never even begin to understand Talmud. They think they know what they do not know.
In other words I understand the idea of time limit.
So it occurred to me the best way to do this is to take almost at random any chapter or essay in Rav Shach's Avi Ezri and learn it well in connection with the sources he brings.
You could ask why not Reb Chaim Soloveitchik's Chidushei HaRambam?
First of all because Rav Shach is understandable and even easy to understand once you are familiar with the Gemara and Rambam that he is discussing. Second, I simply think it is a better book. I have great respect for Reb Chaim, but I think Rav Shach saw further and better.
There is a degree you have to trust my judgement on this issue. After all anyone learning any vocation has lots of difference of opinions than his mentors. It is just something that anyone and everyone has to go through to learn any subject properly. You just have to take my word for it until you yourself have gone through Shas and enough poskim rishonim and achronim to see what I am saying.
I had the same doubts when I was learning Gemara. I also thought, "What good is the in-depth learning, when I have not even finished Shas once yet?" Eventually I began to see that people that did not learn in-depth at the beginning of their yeshiva years, never even begin to understand Talmud. They think they know what they do not know.
