"The Maharal also
had a lasting influence on the famous darshan Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim of
Luntschitz. For instance, the influence of the Maharal's approach to Torah
learning can be clearly seen in Rabbi Luntschitz's sermon. recorded in Amudei
Sheish: "All the teaching in the yeshiva comes down to the empty arguments of
chilluk. It is terrible to think that some elderly rabbi teaches this, even
though he and everyone else know that the true meaning is different. Can Hashem
really want that we should sharpen our minds with such false teachings? .. This
type of study [of chilluk-pilpul] has an especially negative effect on the
students. There might be a student who, if he had been able to learn Tanach,
Mishnah, Talmud and Halachah in a regular, orderly fashion, would have shone as
one of the best. But if this student does not excel in empty chilluk, he is
looked down upon to the point that he is practically forced to stop learning. I
myself have known intelligent young men who, when they couldn't shine in pllpul,
were considered inept by their fellow-students and so gave up learning
altogether upon getting married."
"One of the first
things the Maharal did upon returning from Posen to Prague was to help Rabbi
Yosef Heilperin of Posen publish Elm Hayeled, a Hebrew grammar for seven
year-old children. In his preface, Rabbi Hellperln wrote that the Maharal had
urged him to produce this work, and the Maharal himself added a line that one is
obligated to teach one's children the Holy Tongue in a clear manner, just as was
done in previous generations.
"In the meantime,
the Maharal continued his campaign for the learnmg of MiShnah by both children
and adults, those who knew little and those who were learned. The Maharal wanted
that adults and learned people learn Mishnah, and thus he established Chevros
Mishnayos that learned one chapter of Mishnah a day. In this way, one could go
through the entire six orders of the Mishnah in a few years and gain a comprehension
of and familiarity with the basic concepts discussed in the entire Talmud. The
flrst such group was organized in Prague, but gradually this institution spread
across all of Europe. The Maharal wished that the Mishnah be learned with
comprehension. As his student Rabbi Yom Tov Heller wrote, the intent was "to
teach Mishnah with attention to its reasons and commentaries."
The Maharal of
Prague, Yaacov Dovid Shulman, CIS Publishers, pp. 210-212.
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