Last week I experienced a brief moment of intense disappointment. I bought the latest of Rav Chaim Kanievsky’s trademark encyclopedic works, Derech Chochma and found the following introduction:
“My goal was to compile the various commentaries on the words of the Rambam … I made extensive use of the index of Rabbi Shabsi Frankel. I did not own all of the works cited, so I depended on citations in the index.”
Rav Chaim Kanievsky wrote a sefer based on an index. Indeed, throughout the sefer he constantly quotes the index as the basis of his anthology.
Every year we are treated to countless study aids to save us from actually having to know something. Whereas twenty years ago a Rabbi (or lawyer for that matter) needed to have a very broad knowledge base, a researcher today only needs to know which index, anthology or software program to use.
Of course, to really know and comprehend the material you need to work hard. We are taught not to depend on crutches or training wheels in our learning. We put our noses to the grindstone because true knowledge comes only from hard work.
Ask anyone in the know to list the top ten Torah scholars in this generation and they are guaranteed to mention Rav Chaim Kanievsky. Rav Chaim has devoted his life to attaining real knowledge. He studies and reviews every major and minor work in our literature on a regular basis. Rav Chaim Kanievsky wrote encyclopedic works on many topics from the Laws of Grasshoppers and Agriculture to Gematria and Medrash. He is considered to be knowledgeable in the entire Torah.
Rav Chaim Kanievsky has always been my role model for doing things the right way. He does not take shortcuts; he just studies and studies and studies. When he finishes one book he begins the next, and when he finishes everything he starts again. He has been at it for over fifty years.
So, what happened to Rav Chaim Kanievsky?! Students around the world mock the index of Rav Shabsi Frankel as a crutch and a substitution for “real” learning, but Rav Chaim is teaching us that the role of a new study aid is not to let us learn less; it is to help us learn more.
In Vizhnitz (Monsey) there is a group of fifteen men with long white beards who study Daf Yomi together. They are learned men and have probably reviewed Shas three or four times in that Daf Yomi Shiur alone. I joined them last week and found that, without exception, they were all using “cheating gemaras”. Older Men who were able to quote obscure sources and argue about them intelligently chose to use the latest in study aids to make their learning experience even better.
We cannot get lazy, but we also cannot ignore opportunities to get better.
I still try not to use the “cheating Gemara” but when other guys in Daf Yomi insist on interjecting with “note 92 in the Artscroll” I welcome it as a perk, not a nuisance.
I guess the line of whether to use a study aid or not is whether you’re using it as a shortcut and “cheating gemara” or if you’re using it to learn and know things you otherwise wouldn’t know about