Reading the Talmud: Developing Independence in Gemara Learning

The Jewish world has seen a phenomenal renaissance in Talmudic study in recent decades, yet many serious adult students continue to struggle at a basic level because they did not have the benefit of a traditional Jewish childhood education. Despite great levels of motivation and personal self-sacrifice, such students are forced to choose between reading English translations of the Talmud, or struggling to look every other word in an Aramaic-English dictionary. Reading The Talmud represents the first English-language textbook of Talmud, designed precisely for the contemporary ba’al teshuvah. Incorporating traditional Yeshivah-style learning techniques with modern methods of language study, this textbook is designed to make it possible for students “to make a breakthrough…which will lead them to self-sufficent competence” (Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, Rosh Yeshiva, Ohr Somayach).