Hello Everyone,
I am writing to welcome both new students and returning students to our series of classes titled “Learn Gemara Keywords.”
If you are new to the course, here is a description of its purpose. In this course we read a passage from the Gemara paying attention to vocabulary and syntax. The Gemara is written in a very terse style. The student of the Gemara ( and every Jew ought to at some point in their lives be a student of the Gemara) navigates this text by identifying certain words and phrases which indicate how the discussion ( and the Gemara reads like a transcript of a discussion) is progressing.
I began the study of the Gemara a long time ago (in September 1969 to be precise). It took a while for me to figure out what is going on in a page of the Gemara but I still remember the surprise that I felt when I opened an unfamiliar volume of the Gemara and read it and it made sense (it was sometime in the winter of 1971). At that moment I first began to love the Gemara. I still love the Gemara and I hope that this course will lead you to love it as well.
During the past year we studied passages from the Gemara which deal with property law. We will begin this series by studying something more “religious”- the laws of the mitzvah to eat in a Sukkah.
I look forward to meeting with you and I hope that you will enjoy the course.
I really enjoy hearing comments and suggestions. My e-mail address is fish9999@gmail.com Please feel free to write to me.
Stuart Fischman