Winter Workshops

1) Take some time to reflect. Before you meet with your chevruta, go back to your RUBRIC. Notice where you landed and how you described your relationship to Tosafot & Rishonim. Take some time to think, journal, etc. on the following questions:

• As we incorporate commentators into our learning, what are you hoping to explore and learn from this process?
• What comes up when you think about learning Tosafot and Rishonim?
• How does it feel?
• What prior experiences & expectations are you bringing into the learning?

2) Read through the sections of Tools for Tosafos (linked here) to help you get a sense of WHAT Tosafot is/are, WHY we learn them, and HOW to go about learning their comments on the daf.  You can also check out the section on Tosafot in the (Ho)Mo-Reh Derekh (p. 92-3).

3) Check in with your chevruta. Share your goals, what comes up for you, and what your prior experiences & expectations as you embark on learning this material.

4) Using the tips from Tools for Tosafos (Chapter 13, but *especially* “Tip 2: Approach Tosafot Gradually”) begin learning the comment from Tosafot on our daf (she’yodea letaher et hasheretz). NOTE: You do not need to, nor should you plan to, learn the entire comment. Tools for Tosafos offers the following advice: “It is not necessary to finish every Tosafos at first…it is sufficient to learn one question and answer, or one idea, and then to proceed with the study of the Gemara.” Wherever you get to is perfect, whether it’s a few words, a few lines, a comment, an idea, etc. If you’re present and curious, you’re doing it right!

1) Check in with your chevruta. Like last week, take some time with your chevruta/ot to check in about what you’re bringing to this exploration! (Feel free to go back into the questions from last week, listed below.)

• As we incorporate commentators into our learning, what are you hoping to explore and learn from this process?
• What comes up when you think about learning Tosafot and Rishonim?
• How does it feel?
• What prior experiences & expectations are you bringing into the learning?

2) Take a look at the following list of Rishonim, pick one, two, three, all… and start exploring! If you want, use some Google-ing skills to help you learn WHO these folks are and WHY we might learn them. You can also take a look at the flow chart on page 95 of the (Ho)Mo-Reh Derekh  to give you  a sense of geography and lineage.

• Rabeinu Chananel
  Where: on the daf, outer column

• Rambam
  Where: in “Mishneh Torah,” linked in our supplemental text packet. The citations in our packet come from the footnotes that hyper-link us to the ein mishpat ner mitzvah (pages 3 & 4). See if you can use the hyperlinks in the ein mishpat ner mitzvah to figure out where to start. If you need help decoding those acronyms, check out p. 89-90 of the (Ho)Mo-Reh Derekh.

• Meiri
  Where: in “Hiddushei HaMeiri” aka “Beit HaBechira” (a book, one volume published for each masechet). This text is linked in our supplemental text packet. It can be hard to find where the Meiri writes about a specific point. I try to skim the whole thing and look for a key word (like sheretz!). A good place to start is p. 5 of the packet on the left-hand side in the middle of the paragraph that starts with אין מעמידין. You can start with the phrase אין מושיבין בסנהדרין אלא תלמיד חכם, which starts about 10 lines down from the start of that paragraph, and go through however much you want!

• Rashba
  Where: in “Hiddushei HaRashba” (a book, published as a full commentary to most masechtot of the Talmud). NOTE: This comment is on the parallel place that this line “le/metaher et hasheretz” appears, which we noted in shiur is Eruvin 13b. This text is linked in our supplemental text packet. 

NOTE: Just like in our learning of Tosafot, you do not need to learn the entire comment. Take Reb Perlmutter’s advice from Tools for Tosafos seriously: “It is not necessary to finish every Tosafos at first…it is sufficient to learn one question and answer, or one idea, and then to proceed with the study of the Gemara.” Wherever you get to is perfect, whether it’s a few words, a few lines, a comment, an idea, etc. If you’re present and curious, you’re doing it right!