Q:
A working person who wants to learn every day, is it a good idea to learn a daf a day like daf yomi so he finishes shas in seven years or is it better to do less but to do chazarah?
A:
Now this is a touchy subject. I don’t want to discourage daf yomi. It’s better than nothing. Better than nothing.
But it’s much better if you’re able to chazer. If you learn a daf yomi and review it at least four times every day and keep on reviewing it as you go, ok, very good. But that’s not so easy. It’s so important to concentrate on chazarah. For your own personal shteiging and aliyah in learning it’s more important to review constantly.
Now some people have no time to learn. They sit down at daf yomi and they’re yotzei the mitzvah of learning. It’s a good thing. A good thing. And gedolei Yisroel who know Shas well, daf yomi to them is a way of reviewing. But for ordinary people daf yomi is just a way of being yotzei the mitzvah in a superficial easy way.
TAPE # E-267 (March 2001)
