Ask The Rabbi: Losing focus during Shiur | Rabbi Dovid Abenson

Dear Rabbi Abenson,

I have a question about what a student should do while listening to a shiur. Personally, I don’t like to ask or even think of questions or ask myself whether I understand. I rather listen and take it in as a whole. I don’t like to clutter my mind with questions that might be answered during the shiur. I don’t want to get sidetracked and miss out on the ongoing shiur. I don’t want the inner pressure that questions might present.

Others do ask questions and if someone drags out the discussion of the answer too long, it annoys me.

I did ask a mechanech this question and he answered that there is no right way but listening and then asking questions is probably a better way.

I wanted to get your opinion and if Chazal talked about it.

Kol tuv and hatzlacha raba!

Dovid*

Answer:

Thank you for your email. Your question regarding the proper place of questions during a shiur is a great one.

In the great rabbinic tradition I am going to answer your question with a question of my own. Why would a student need to ask questions during the shiur?

Sometimes people ask questions as a means to show off their knowledge and try to look smart. Sometimes students ask questions on purpose to get the rebbe off-topic. I am not surprised that you find questions of this nature annoying and distracting. Obviously these questions have no place in a shiur. A good maggid shiur will quickly deflect such questions and get back on track.

But what if your question really is a “bomb kashya” on the material? The respectful thing to do is to wait until the end of the shiur. Perhaps the rebbe intends to address it later. Don’t steal his punchline!

So that leaves us with questions for the purposes of clarification. The students are not understanding the material.

This is one of the biggest problems we have today in the Yeshiva world and I cannot emphasize this enough. Torah teaching must be clear. The goal of a shiur is to present the material in a way the students can follow. If this is not happening, Dovid, before you blame yourself for not being smart enough or quick enough, please ask yourself is the rebbi being clear enough?

I remember in my yeshiva days my friend was complaining to the Mashgiach that he couldn’t understand the maggid shiur. The Mashgiach instructed him to secretly tape the shiur, whereupon the Mashgiach himself checked if the Maggid Shiur was being clear enough. Eventually that shiur was discontinued.

Rav Matisyahu Salomon once referred an 18-year-old yeshiva bochur to see me. The boy claimed to be fed up with learning and wanted to leave Yeshiva to go to college. Rav Salomon asked me to try to keep him in the yeshiva. During the evaluation, I suggested that the student should ask his rebbi to translate the word patur with one single English word. The rebbe could not translate the word succinctly. In fact, his explanation ran to several sentences! I explained to the student that his rebbi has a problem with “over expressing” himself. The student should not blame himself if the shiur is difficult to understand. The student was heartened and remained in yeshiva.

Recently I was brought over to New York to help 50 year old Maggid shiur. He had been teaching in Yeshiva for 30 years. His problem was that it took him three days to prepare each shiur. The Rosh Yeshiva asked me if I can help him cut down his preparation time. Evaluation revealed he was missing many basic skills in reading, comprehension and translation. Even properly understanding Rashi was hard for him. No wonder his shiurim took him so long to prepare. Of course, because he himself lacked clarity, he was not able to give over the material to the students clearly and confidently. It is incumbent on every teacher of Torah to ensure he has the requisite skills. If his shiurim are not clear, the students will suffer.

It is very common today for shiurim to be presented in “yeshivish” English, where Hebrew and Yiddish words are interspersed with English ones. It requires a lot more brain power to process this kind of multilingual speech, especially when many of the words remain untranslated. Sometimes the Maggid shiur himself speaks only broken English, because it is not his first language, or he misuses English words because of his own lack of English education. Occasionally it’s the opposite problem, his English vocabulary far exceeds that of the students. Yeshivos do not emphasize English language education or literature so the typical yeshiva student has a very basic vocabulary. Hence the shiur may be far above his English level. In short, a shiur should be given in the student’s native language at his level of comprehension.

You asked about what Chazal says on the topic of the right way to give and hear a shiur. You may be interested to hear, Dovid, that Chazal instruct us on how to give a shiur.

Let us look at the Gemara in Eruvin 54b.רבי עֲקִיבָא אוֹמֵר: מִנַּיִן שֶׁחַיָּיב אָדָם לִשְׁנוֹת לְתַלְמִידוֹ עַד שֶׁיִּלְמָדֶנּוּ — שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״וְלַמְּדָהּ אֶת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל״, וּמִנַּיִן עַד שֶׁתְּהֵא סְדוּרָה בְּפִיהֶם — שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״שִׂימָהּ בְּפִיהֶם״,
Rabbi Akiva says: From where do we derive that a person is obligated to teach his student until he learns the material and understands it? As it is stated: “Now, therefore, write this song for you, and teach it to the children of Israel; put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 31:19). The phrase “Put it in their mouths,” is understood to refer to having the material “organized in the mouth”. It should be clear and orderly so that they should be capable of teaching it to others.

So Dovid, when you ask me about asking questions during the shiur, I would say ideally there shouldn’t be any need for questions. Each idea should be presented clearly, each point following on from the previous point. At the end of the shiur the student should have the material clear in his mind to the extent that he could explain it to someone else. The student should not need to ask numerous questions after the shiur. He certainly shouldn’t need his parents to hire a tutor to go over the Gemara at night to prepare him for the next day in class.

For any readers who have a hard time following a shiur, consider the possibility that the problem may lie in the delivery of the shiur and not with you. If you are fortunate enough to hear a shiur presented clearly, in plain English, you will be pleasantly surprised to see how comparatively easy it is to listen to and to understand. You will not lose focus. Clarity is the key to proper Torah teaching. When given over in this way students will taste the inherent sweetness of Torah and develop a lifelong love of learning.

Should you have any more questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Dovid Abenson

*the name has been changed

ASK THE RABBI is a new forum where readers are welcome to submit all questions on subjects regarding Jewish education to Rabbi Abenson and he will answer them in a timely fashion through TheLakewoodScoop.

Rabbi Dovid Abenson can be contacted at: Tel. 15147393629, Cell/Whatsapp 15149935300, Email: [email protected].

Rabbi Abenson is the founder and director of ShaarHatalmud, a unique yeshivah-based online program, which incorporates learning all Kodesh subjects, from Kriah up to learning Gemara, Rishonim, and Shulchan Aruch. He also conducts evaluations, remediation, and training, and consults with Roshei HaYeshiva and Menahelim to improve students’ underdeveloped learning and textual skills.

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1 COMMENT

  1. I find this article to be completely disrespectful to Rebbeim.
    1. If someone needs something repeated or clarified, that does NOT mean the shiur wasn’t clear.
    2.show off what they know says a lot, how many people actually do that?
    3. This is not the forst article by this author putting down Rabbeim.

Comments are closed.