One way I have found helpful in learning is to learn word by word as I have mentioned. But sometimes after I have finished a book and am in the process of review I find it helpful to hold my place with a place marker. Then the next day to go back over the previous page and then to go further after that.
There was a process that I used when there was a very limited amount of material that I absolutely had to understand then and there,- and there was not time for my usual relaxed way of learning of saying, "When I come around the whole book the second time I will get it."
That is;- I would say every paragraph forwards and backwards. I based this on Yehuda, a mediaeval mystic, and the Ari (Isaac Luria) and Moshe Chaim Lutzatto. In all of their books I found some hint to this kind of idea.
I hesitate to mention this idea because it might be that some people do not need it, and others it might not work so well for. Still for myself I have found it effective in some cases.
I used this saying the paragraph forwards and backwards when I was Polytechnic Institute of NYU. Without it I could not have succeeded. The reason is I needed to pass exams. The fast method of learning that I use t give me an overview of a subject simply did not could not have given me the understanding I needed to pass those exams.
But that was because I was doing a very limited amount of material.
So in short what i recommend is two sessions for every subject. A fast session in which you read the words as fast as possible and do not think at all whether you understand or not. The other is this approach of saying every paragraph forwards and backwards. And even many times util you get it.
The first time I saw the idea of learning fast was in a secular context. Speed reading. But the idea did not include saying the words. In the Jewish context I saw this in a Musar book the Ways of the Righteous.
If people would learn in Litvak yeshivas they would already know this. The regular way of any Litvak Yeshiva is slow and in depth learning in the morning and fast in the afternoon.
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| I love to learn Torah |
There was a process that I used when there was a very limited amount of material that I absolutely had to understand then and there,- and there was not time for my usual relaxed way of learning of saying, "When I come around the whole book the second time I will get it."
That is;- I would say every paragraph forwards and backwards. I based this on Yehuda, a mediaeval mystic, and the Ari (Isaac Luria) and Moshe Chaim Lutzatto. In all of their books I found some hint to this kind of idea.
I hesitate to mention this idea because it might be that some people do not need it, and others it might not work so well for. Still for myself I have found it effective in some cases.
I used this saying the paragraph forwards and backwards when I was Polytechnic Institute of NYU. Without it I could not have succeeded. The reason is I needed to pass exams. The fast method of learning that I use t give me an overview of a subject simply did not could not have given me the understanding I needed to pass those exams.
But that was because I was doing a very limited amount of material.
So in short what i recommend is two sessions for every subject. A fast session in which you read the words as fast as possible and do not think at all whether you understand or not. The other is this approach of saying every paragraph forwards and backwards. And even many times util you get it.
The first time I saw the idea of learning fast was in a secular context. Speed reading. But the idea did not include saying the words. In the Jewish context I saw this in a Musar book the Ways of the Righteous.
If people would learn in Litvak yeshivas they would already know this. The regular way of any Litvak Yeshiva is slow and in depth learning in the morning and fast in the afternoon.
