How to Learn Gemara

Reading

The very first activity that you will engage in to start the learning process is reading the text. As with reading any text you must first understand the words, put the words together into sentences and put the sentences together into paragraphs and topics. Reading the גמרא is a somewhat more difficult task as the language of the גמרא is Aramaic. Aramic is similar to Hebrew so a student who is familiar with Hebrew will have an advantage to understand the language structures and identify some common roots of words.

There are various tools available to the learner when trying to understand the words. There are various dictionaries available that translate words or phrases from the גמרא into various languages. One of the most comprehensive dictionaries is A Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Bavli, Talmud Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature by Rabbi Marcus Jastrow. Additionally there are numerous translations of the גמרא into various languages. Two of the most popular translations are the Steinsaltz and Art Scroll / Schotenstein translations. Translations also provide you with punctuation and offer both background information and interpretation. Whether it is preferable to work through the understanding of individual words using a dictionary or make use of translations can be debated but they are both useful tools with advantages and disadvantages.

Putting the words together into sentences entails knowing when a sentence ends and what type of sentence it is. A sentence may be one of the following:

• Statement - the statement of a halachik position
• Question - a challenge to a halachik postion
• Answer - a response to a challenge
• Proof - another source that supports a given halachik position

Putting the sentences together into paragraphs and topics allows the learner to see what is essentially a conversation and follow the development of a particular halachik thought through the גמרא.

Proceed to an Overview of the process or Dive in to the process

Case and דין

Generally the גמרא presents the adjudication of a specific case. That is, it tells a story = case, and then describes how the halakhic system wishes us to relate to the events described in the story = the ruling in the case.  

For example, the first משנה in the second פרק of ברכות starts:

היה קורא בתורה, והגיע זמן המקרא: אם כיוון לבו – יצא, ואם לאו – לא יצא.

The משנה presents a specific case: Someone who is reading the תורה, specifically the פרשה of Shema, and the time of hisTorah reading happens to coincide with the time that he is required to say קריאת שמע.

It then presents the adjudiction of the case: Under certain circumstances the outcome is יצא (he has fulfilled his obligation) while under other circumstances the outcome is לא יצא (he has not fulfilled his obligation).

Note: "Different circumstances" mean different specific cases.

Note: The only reason to adjudicate or render a halakhic ruling in relation to a case, is that there is a halakhic problem which has to be solved. 

This structure of a case and דין or, ruling make up the basic halachik unit that is to be analyzed. 

Other terms used to describe case and ruling are: מציאות or אוקימתא (case) and דין or  פסק (ruling).

The structure of the relationship between case and din is "If/When (description of case)-->Then (apply the following ruling)"

Overview

1. CHAPTER ONE

"THUS BEGAN THIS PROJECT..."

Process Overview

There are excellent gemara learners and not so excellent learners.

If I'm not one of the first group, I'd certainly love to acquire the skills that they have so that perhaps someday I too will be able to learn at the level that they do or at least be able to approximate some of what they do.

Essentially we are talking of acquiring (i.e. learning) a derech in limud. To do so we need to identify what characterizes the derachim of the excellent ones so that we can begin to copy it - OK "emulate it" sounds better.

And so the question becomes what are they doing such that if I would do it, I would begin, at least to some extent, to learn like they do.

Thus began this project.

We cannot claim that we in fact modelled the great learners directly. We didn't.

But in imagining what they most probably must have done, we have developed a set of learning tools that will guide you in very specific and precise manners of thinking and analyzing any gemara text so that you will know exactly what you need to do, which questions to ask, directions of thinking for generating answers etc. You will begin to learn at a far higher and more precise level than you probably have until now and weth a greater degree of confidence in your abilities.

Anyone who learns well has repetetive patterns of thinking which he uses - in fact which he is compelled to use - when he approaches the texts of the gemara or its commentaries. 

It seems to us that essentially, there are two sets of templates for studying gemara: One is the set of templates for analyzing the text. The second is the set of templates for conceptualizing your textual analysis. 

If you choose to utilize only the first set, you will be doing what is called "bekius" learning.

When utilizing any of the conceptual templates, you will be doing what is called "lomdus"or "amkus" learning.

PLEASE NOTE: In the rest of this chapter we will introduce you to these templates, essentially by listing them and giving very short explanations of what they are and how to use them. In the following chapters we will learn them as they develop from the textual anlysis - as opposed to what we will do in this chapter where we will just describe them not in a particular textual content. For the reader who prefers to become acquainted with the templates before attempting to apply it to the text, read on. If your learning preference is to learn the skills as they emerge from learning a text, you might wish to immediately begin chapter two.

There are 4 levels of learning which we will adress.

they are:

1. I Bekius Analysis
   1. The Basic Unit: Case-Din Structure and Analysis
   2. Flow of the Gemara: The Gemara's analysis of the original and related case-din units
2. Conceptual/Lomdus Analysi
   1. Conceptual analysis: Alternative Understandings and Generalized Rule-Derivations based on previous 2 levels
   2. Creating Filing Systems for Organizing the material learned, for future reference
   3. Relevancy Templates: Halacha l'maaseh and Moral & Philosophical implications
3. III Additional
   1. Memory Techniques

The Torah is God's Guide to us - "Torah" etymologically means direct/guide/educate - for how to act in life-situations we constantly or infrequently meet up with.

Obviously an exhaustive list of precisely how to behave in every imaginable and many unimaginable cases is impossible.

furthermore such a list is not desirable. The study of Torah is not merely a search for a behavioral ruling in a particular case. We study Torah as a means for connecting intellectually and emotionally with its Author. The Torah was given to us by God as a meditation, as a love letter to be read and re-read and constantly reflected upon.

Thus it was intentionally given in an unfinished manner. Unfinished in the sense that as we each develop personally, and as society and its philosophical meanderings and technological advances change around us, we must look into the Torah for that guidance as to how to relate to the changes around us, from its eternal perspectives.

So how does the Torah guide us? And here we come to the specifics of our concern: What are the intellectual structures it provides us to use in the answers to our searchings?

The answer