LEARN, REVIEW & REMEMBER
Shas Chabura is a program designed to help one retain a broad knowledge of the תורה. This is achieved by learning and simultaneously reviewing in a fashion that expands the power of one’s memory. THE METHODShas chabura webinar – How to become a Talmid Chocham
Podcast with Peretz Baruch Eichler
The program is simple:
You learn today (Day 1)
Review tomorrow – (Day 2)
Review a week later – (Day 9)
Review a month later – (Day 39)
Review three months later – (Day 129)
One then reviews the material every subsequent year on the anniversary of the original learning.
Quotes from our Gedolim
There is an obligation for each and every person to learn and know all of תורה and ש”ס as it says in the passuk – “ודברת בם”
The חובה in the Mirrer Yeshiva that utilizes this method gives me much nachas. Over the past ten years they have learned and chazzered almost all of ש”ס using this system in סדר שני alone.
In the past learning all of ש”ס was a goal that one strived for. In our day it has unfortunately become a מת מצוה. Hashem should grant you התלחה with your program to be מזכה the רבים.
I have tremendous enjoyment from your program and it does need my הסכמה, for חז”ל already tell us, כל הלומד ואינו חוזר כזורע ואינו קוצר.
The Theory
Science has taught us that memory is composed of two parts: 1) short term memory 2) long term memory. Short term memory lasts for a number of days or at most a few weeks.
Every bit of information is first “deposited” into short-term memory. It may become long-term memory but only if the impression made in our mind is strong enough. Though there are many different ways to create this impression, one very basic strategy is continual review.
The theory here is simple: The review does not cause a person to remember his learning, it just does not give him a chance to forget it.
When we finish learning a blatt and turn the page, how well do we really know it? Will we remember it tomorrow? Next week? Next year? The only thing that can help to guarantee that the average person will retain what he has learned — is chazorah. By maintaining a regular schedule of review, one has created a mechanism that allows for a deeper understanding of everything that was previously learned. Yesterday’s learning has merely set the foundation for today’s learning. We keep building to ultimately end up with a deep understanding of the sugya.
Many times the gemora will discuss a particular topic in one place, only to continue the topic many blatt later — and then again in several other places in Shas. Without chazorah, how is one able to remember what the gemora said 10 blatt ago — let alone in a different masechta?
Of course, chazorah cannot consume all of one’s allotted learning time and new material must be learned on a daily basis. However, by reserving part of our time for chazorah we thereby follow a system that will allow us to gain this great and important gift of long-term memory.
The basis of the theory is built upon constantly amassing new material — while maintaining a regular periodical review of the old.
Each day brings a new amud or blatt, along with regular chazorah. After a gemora is studied initially, a day must not go by before reviewing the gemora a second time. The third time is after a week. The fourth after a month. The fifth chazorah is done after three months and then, the gemora must be reviewed once a year (on the date that you saw it originally).
When a gemora is chazerred six times over the course of the first year — how can one forget what he has learned? Of course, one must be disciplined to maintain this schedule, but it is well worth the effort.