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.

Dr. Henry (Hillel) Abramson holds a PhD in Jewish History and is Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Services at Touro College South in Miami Beach. Well-known for his studies of Eastern European Jewry, he began to design this method of teaching adult students while teaching at Cornell University, and refined it for over a decade while holding visiting and doctoral appointments at Harvard, Oxford, and Hebrew University. Besides working with college students new to Judaism, Dr. Abramson also gave shiurim using this method to men with children in Yeshiva middle school, affording them the tools to continue learning with their sons, progressing together in Gemara study.