Emet / Truth
What I have been doing lately....
posted Wednesday, 4 January 2006
For the last month I have been on Summer vactaction. Uni starts again in the first month of March. For the last 2 weeks my daily schedule has been as follows:
Between 7:30am & 8:00am - I get up in the morning
8:45am -> 9:30am I have a shiur in Tanya (Sefer by the First Lubavitcher Rebbe, Reb Shneur Zalman of Liady). I am not a Lubavitcher Chassid, but I find Tanya to be a very interesting Sefer to learn and it serves as good preperation before davening
9:30am -> 10:30am Davening
11:00am -> 12:00pm Shiur in Mishna. I learn a perek every day with a Rebbi of mine. We learn with Kehati and Bertunura. So far we have done Brachot and up to perek 9 of Shabbos. I also use the picture book on Mesechta Shabbos by Feldheim, I would be so lost without it. Over the next year or two the hope is to finish all of mishna. The goal of the shiur is to learn all of the vocab and pshat in each mishna. It is a very worthwhile endevour and I highly recommend it to everyone. I'll will be writing a post about the value of studying mishna at a later stage.
12:30 -> 1:30 Shiur in Gemera. I am learning various sugyas of Mesechta Shabbos with a Chavrusa. It is a more bi'iyun shiur and we usually do quite a few tosfos.
During the Arvo I either read, hang out with friends, go for lunch, have a sleep or a mixture of all of the above. In the evening I daven at 8:00pm Mincha/Maariv and finish at about 9:00pm. On Monday and Tuesday nights I have a gemera shiur (Pesechim, Second Perek) from 9:00pm till 10:15pm. Mostly pshat bekiut learning but with a very good maggid shiur who is very pacient and explains things clearly and precisely.
I have done quite a bit of reading in my spare time. Everyday I read my Areivim and Avodah posts and check out my favourite blogs and torah sites (see my side bar for some of them). I am currently reading the following books:
Thinking G-d by Dr Allan Brill of YU on R'Tzaddok Ha-Kohen of Lublin. It is interesting well researched book, but in all honesty I am finding it a bit of a hard read, abit too academic for my liking, but it is a good book if you want a sefer on the life and influence of R'Tzadok Ha-kohen and a analysis of his derech in chassidut.
I am reading Orot Hatshuva by R'Kook transleted by Dr Metzger and published by YU. It is much easier read than Orot translated by R' Bazelel Naor (he did a superb job, but Orot itself is a very complicated sefer, which in all honesty I understood very little, the concepts are very abstract and the language is very poetic. If anyone can explain pshat in that sefer I would be most appreciative :)
A great book which I highly recommend and which I greatly enjoyed is "Eyes to See: Recovering Ethical Torah Principles lost in the Holocaust" by R' Yom Tov Schwarz. See here for more info on the book. It is so refreshing to see a Chareidi author be critical of the current Chareidi establishment. It is well researched, articulate and has many great mekorot. He basically attacks: the lack of ahavas yisrael among Jews including towards the non observant, the lack of respect for the gentile populace, the large amount of individuals in kollel who are not working and a lack of sensitivity to the holocaust. Fantastic book, tell everyone about it. It literally does open up your eyes, and after finishing it I was left with the feeling "This makes so much sense, its so simple, one can everyone else not just see it like this"
That is all I can think of for now, I am just about to go eat a fried egg as a late dinner. Looking forward to comments. The crowd has been a bit quite lately (although according to my counter there still many people reading B"H). Write in and tell me what you been doing. I always look forward to comments. Until then, take care and G-d bless.
Between 7:30am & 8:00am - I get up in the morning
8:45am -> 9:30am I have a shiur in Tanya (Sefer by the First Lubavitcher Rebbe, Reb Shneur Zalman of Liady). I am not a Lubavitcher Chassid, but I find Tanya to be a very interesting Sefer to learn and it serves as good preperation before davening
9:30am -> 10:30am Davening
11:00am -> 12:00pm Shiur in Mishna. I learn a perek every day with a Rebbi of mine. We learn with Kehati and Bertunura. So far we have done Brachot and up to perek 9 of Shabbos. I also use the picture book on Mesechta Shabbos by Feldheim, I would be so lost without it. Over the next year or two the hope is to finish all of mishna. The goal of the shiur is to learn all of the vocab and pshat in each mishna. It is a very worthwhile endevour and I highly recommend it to everyone. I'll will be writing a post about the value of studying mishna at a later stage.
12:30 -> 1:30 Shiur in Gemera. I am learning various sugyas of Mesechta Shabbos with a Chavrusa. It is a more bi'iyun shiur and we usually do quite a few tosfos.
During the Arvo I either read, hang out with friends, go for lunch, have a sleep or a mixture of all of the above. In the evening I daven at 8:00pm Mincha/Maariv and finish at about 9:00pm. On Monday and Tuesday nights I have a gemera shiur (Pesechim, Second Perek) from 9:00pm till 10:15pm. Mostly pshat bekiut learning but with a very good maggid shiur who is very pacient and explains things clearly and precisely.
I have done quite a bit of reading in my spare time. Everyday I read my Areivim and Avodah posts and check out my favourite blogs and torah sites (see my side bar for some of them). I am currently reading the following books:
Thinking G-d by Dr Allan Brill of YU on R'Tzaddok Ha-Kohen of Lublin. It is interesting well researched book, but in all honesty I am finding it a bit of a hard read, abit too academic for my liking, but it is a good book if you want a sefer on the life and influence of R'Tzadok Ha-kohen and a analysis of his derech in chassidut.
I am reading Orot Hatshuva by R'Kook transleted by Dr Metzger and published by YU. It is much easier read than Orot translated by R' Bazelel Naor (he did a superb job, but Orot itself is a very complicated sefer, which in all honesty I understood very little, the concepts are very abstract and the language is very poetic. If anyone can explain pshat in that sefer I would be most appreciative :)
A great book which I highly recommend and which I greatly enjoyed is "Eyes to See: Recovering Ethical Torah Principles lost in the Holocaust" by R' Yom Tov Schwarz. See here for more info on the book. It is so refreshing to see a Chareidi author be critical of the current Chareidi establishment. It is well researched, articulate and has many great mekorot. He basically attacks: the lack of ahavas yisrael among Jews including towards the non observant, the lack of respect for the gentile populace, the large amount of individuals in kollel who are not working and a lack of sensitivity to the holocaust. Fantastic book, tell everyone about it. It literally does open up your eyes, and after finishing it I was left with the feeling "This makes so much sense, its so simple, one can everyone else not just see it like this"
That is all I can think of for now, I am just about to go eat a fried egg as a late dinner. Looking forward to comments. The crowd has been a bit quite lately (although according to my counter there still many people reading B"H). Write in and tell me what you been doing. I always look forward to comments. Until then, take care and G-d bless.
comments (8)
1. Harry Maryles left...
Thursday, 5 January 2006 2:39 am :: http://haemtza.blogspot.com/
"I have a shiur in Tanya (Sefer by the First Lubavitcher Rebbe, Reb Shneur
Zalman of Liady). I am not a Lubavitcher Chassid, but I find Tanya to be a
very interesting Sefer to learn and it serves as good preperation before
davening"
2. Jewish Exile left...
Thursday, 5 January 2006 3:02 am :: http://www.jewishexile.blogspot.com
It's not a great idea to start learning R. Kook with Orot. The best is to
start with his easier works: ein aya, mussar avicha, orot hatorah, some of
the essays in the back of "orot" (zer'onim)... orot hateshuva is also good,
but you won't get as broad an exposure to his thought as you would from ein
aya.
3. chardal left...
Thursday, 5 January 2006 9:09 am
Orot is to the nation what Tanya is to the individual.
4. andy left...
Thursday, 5 January 2006 9:58 am
Rabbi Schwartz wrote a scathing attack on R' Moshe Feinstein 30 years ago
called Maaneh Leigrot.
5. Rael Levinsohn left...
Thursday, 5 January 2006 10:28 am :: http://www.emet.blog-city.com
Reb Harry:
6. Rael Levinsohn left...
Thursday, 5 January 2006 10:33 am :: http://www.emet.blog-city.com
Chardal: I like your choice of metaphor. Very well put
7. Jewish Exile left...
Friday, 6 January 2006 2:49 am :: http://www.jewishexile.blogspot.com
Ein Aya is easier language than his other books, but it can still be
somewhat difficult. The only english translation I know of is "On Societies
Perfect and Imperfect" by Bezalel Naor, which is a very very small
selection of aggadot from Shabbat, along with the Ein Aya commentary on
them.
8. andy left...
Friday, 6 January 2006 11:14 am
I don't have the sefer, my father does, but as I recall he takes issue with
many of R' Moshe's psakim in a rather harsh manner. I think that the famous
'heter' concerning artificial insemination is what got him all heated up.