"I sent to Rav Mazooz something from Rav Henkin's [Rav Yosef Eliyahu Henkin] newest volume in which He says that the Sephardim have something over us. They study dikduk and we all should study dikduk. And it's a problem and in the Ashkenaz world none of us study dikduk and we don't know dikduk and he has a whole piece there how important it is. Again showing Rav Henkin broke from the common way of thinking."
"Isser Zalman Meltzer, part 1," Great Rabbinic Figures, 17:08
Excellent, practical sefer on diduk as it relates to tefila and krias haTorah:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.maharitz.co.il/?CategoryID=174&ArticleID=5701
Thank. I'm not sure how to use this. Is this the right link?
DeleteYes. Copy and paste URL into browser. Sorry, low tech device.
Delete"in the Ashkenaz world none of us study dikduk and we don't know dikduk"
ReplyDeleteSeems too extreme. Did Rav Henkin zt"l say that part, or is that just the lecturer blowing up a small remark into something larger?
Not all Sephardim study/know dikduk, and not all Ashkenazim ignore/are ignorant of it.
Let us not delude ourselves that all Sepharadim are great masters of Hebrew, etc. The grass is not necessarily always greener on the Sephardic side. Actually, I think it is generally greener in Ashkenaz - there is more rain there, after all. That was the problem of the Hasidim and others - overly romanticizing Sephardim. Let's not fall into it.
Introspection is good, but it needs to be based on reality.
It's the lecturer but he's not given to exaggeration. I don't think R' Henkin was referring to all Sephardim and maybe he meant scholars anyway.
DeleteI don't know the Sephardic world at all but I know the Ashkenaz and outside of Modern ORthodoxy we have foolishly turned our backs on study of grammar and language as if it were pork.
DeleteThere is definitely room for improvement, but the situation is not as dire and extreme as described.
DeleteA friend of mine visited an America mesivta and asked the boys to translate a page of basic Hebrew. They couldn't do it. That's a pretty desire situation considering they have spent more than a decade in Torah studies.
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