We each have our own private quests, those goals we tried — or keep trying — to achieve. As we struggle and strive, the process becomes its own destination
ArtScroll’s Eruvin 2 sits on my shelf, the burgundy placeholder marking two days behind today’s daf. That’s where I’m up to. I’ve started daf yomi four times before over the last decade. This is my fifth attempt.
Most evenings I set myself up at the dining room table with a herbal tea, usually peppermint with one Stevia. I open the Gemara and turn on Rabbi Zecharia Resnik’s shiur. The tea is piping hot and cools off as the shiur progresses. The sweet dregs at the bottom are my reward when the shiur is complete.
My old yeshivah self would have scorned this effort. Daf Yomi app and a tea? A herbal tea?
I studied in yeshivah for ten years after high school, the last five years in BMG of Lakewood. The decade of learning was intense. I wasn’t the first one in the beis midrash or the last one out, but I was definitely a serious student. Lomdus was not my thing, but learning was. Multilevel abstract reasoning didn’t come naturally, but diligence and perseverance came easily, and I held my own.
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