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I used to need to know people to ask shailos to. “I know a guy who knows a guy etc.” Some people probably took great pride in the sense that he was the local guy people came to to ask general questions. In the past the only thing lay people had was the kitzur shukchan aruch which is extremely limiting- so local guys who learned were always needed and looked up to.
Now however, I can say 100% for myself that I never need to “rely” on someone I personally know for ANY questions. On my pocket sized smart phone alone I can instantly find about any question you can imagine such as ” Medicines, Toiletries, and Non-Foods On Pesach”. I have halacha hotlines I can call, famous Rabbis I can email from halfway around the world. I have apps that give me an instant shiur and English translation of any page of shas in a second and can lain and teach me the weekly sedra. I have online dictionaries, entire libraries, translations of tosfos- all at my finger tips. With the recently published Hamafteach, I can find instantly what daf any topic or keyword in Shas is then go to my smart phone and listen to an English shiur about it. I have not asked someone I personally know a halachic question in over three years and have gotten along perfectly fine.
Yes, this is all great for the layman who (with much effort) can day by day turn himself into a talmid chacham. But what about all those guys who were always considered so smart in their yeshiva but are now not needed anymore?
What was the Brilliance of Yisro?
He realized everyone was constantly going to Moshe asking Shalos.
Most things dont really require you to bother the Rav, why should you interuppt the Rav’s learning because you are unsure if you tied your shoelace wrong or you slightly missed a zman. Go to the Rav for a real Shalia thats not so easy or easy to know the answer
“But what about all those guys who were always considered so smart in their yeshiva but are now not needed anymore?”
I would imagine that if they are learning Torah lishma they would not care about others no longer being dependent on their knowledge and know-how and take pleasure in the fact that they are being osek in talmud Torah without external rewards. Perhaps this will make their learning all the more meaningful. What else can we do, ban the smart phone apps and yutorah.org?
Find me an app that can explain what the machlokes the Shach and the Taz had and why it relates to a sugya in Nezikim.
If all the gedolim who’s seforim are on hebrewbooks.org knew their sefarim would be available to ANYONE with a click of a button and presented as public lectures on yutorah.org- would they have ever published them in the first place?
mishpachasu, you can add that as another advantage to the internet, that now if you want to be considred smart no longer can you just go through kitzur like the layman and add something on top. The bar is raised that much higher for all since the layman has acess to much more information.
thegra, they undoubtedly would have published more, driven by the haarabtzos torah and zechusim at their fingertips
I am listening to a whole presentation of the Kuntres haSfekot on tefisa and chazaka now, making my way through R’ Sobolofsky’s explanation of the stira between Rashba and Tosfos in Kesuvos 19 and 22 on the relationship between chazaka meikara and amiras bari.
Without the internet, I never would have even became frum in the first place, honestly.
rabdoniel: Can you please post a link to that shiur!?
I wonder if the European Yeshiva bachurim had a similar conversation when seforim became cheap and you no longer needed a different bachur to memorize every mesechta.
If all the gedolim who’s seforim are on hebrewbooks.org knew their sefarim would be
available to ANYONE with a click of a button and presented as public lectures on
yutorah.org- would they have ever published them in the first place?
This is why I never published seforim. The bigger shailoh is why the netziv became the netziv when he could have just used this as his excuse in shomayyim. Maybe he didn’t chap until he started to learn?
I think a more important question is, what is the effect of Talmud Torah on the Internet?
Learning Torah on the internet is a great way to spread Torah!
I can say this- Rav Tzvi Sobolofsky is probably one of the best maggidei shiur in the world.
I posted the contents of the first 2 and a half shiurim on the sugya of tefisa b’sfeka d’dina from my notes, but it was removed. Perhaps it was too long for the moderators to read through.
I suppose the Yeshiva World isn’t so yeshivish after all, when they remove discussions of the heilige Rashba and the Kuntres haSfekot.
Or it could be that the mods are trying to “calderon” me (they don’t want me to look too learned so as to not undermine the notion that people that embrace different hashqafot can learn, also).
But, if you go to YUTorah, search for R’ Sobolofsky, and his dicussion of tefisa be sfekot begins with shiur #81 in B”M. This discusses the mahlokes Ramban and Rif, with the Rosh on tzeroros. Shiur 82 deals with some klalilm in the Shach’s Sefer Takfa Kohen and starts going into Kuntres haSfekot. #83 deals with chazaka and tefisa, starting with the discussion of the Ran on daf hei of Kiddushin, where he deals with chezkas penuya.
I hold very highly of R’ Sobolofsky Shlita, I used to go to his shiurim, but the notes you posted are way too long, try starting a new thread with it if you like and do it in parts. – YW Moderator
We have all the smart guys in yeshiva that learn for shabbos and yom tov when ur smartphone is nothing.
And to make more shuirim. Where do u think these shuirim came from to begin with?
I love those 10 min. shiurim but yes I hear what you are saying. I am going to go right now and delete them from my ipod!
Online education is starting to obviate secular teachers too. Why spend an hour attwending a live lecture from an average local schmoe professor when you can download lectures all day from the best professors at most prestigious universities.
To answer this question myself:
The internet might have the answers for you; but the internet does not know you well … yet.
The real question might be; when learning: how important is it that the source of my knowledge know me?
A second question: Why go to a shoftim, … for an answer that is not an incredibly difficult and life critical question?
I got a lot of my hashkafa education from simpletoremember.com. I don’t think I would have asked my questions in school- they would have simply gone unanswered. I think these shiurim are fantastic, and are one of the reasons the internet should exist for. It really strengthened my yiddishkeit.
TorahAnytime is amazing.
MP3 shiur has blatt shiurim from a gadol, R’ Yisroel Reisman.
Whose shiur from YU is considered the hardest/highest/shtarkest?
R’ Schachter, R’ Sobolofsky, R’ Rosensweig, R’ Simon, etc.?
I like Rabbi Ozer Glickman’s shiurim.
While the internet has made Torah more available to more people than at any time in history, it CAN NOT replace a rav. Not for nothing did the sages of the Mishnah write “aseh l’cha rav”, for a good rav can serve as a spiritual guide on halahchic, hashkafic, and life matters. He can help you in knowing when to be machmir and when to be meikel. And he can help insure that you are following a consistent mesorah rather than picking and choosing.
I agree that a person needs to have a legitimate and well-thought out hermeneutic.
In person is always better then listening on the internet, no?
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