Learning Gemara requires a student to deal not only with unfamiliar
words and the flow of the sugya, but often with physical realities and
situations that are unfamiliar to him.

The Gemara discusses amot and tefachim, sukkahs of different heights,
objects, distances, and situations that a student needs to picture in
his mind in order to understand the discussion.

For an older student, this may be relatively simple. For a
child---especially one who is just beginning to learn Gemara---an
abstract concept can make even a straightforward sugya difficult to
understand.

Over the years, I have found that in cases like these, another
explanation is not always what is needed.

Sometimes, the child simply needs to see it.

What Does Twenty Amot Really Look Like?

I encountered a good example of this while teaching the beginning of
Masechet Sukkah.

The Mishnah discusses a sukkah that is more than twenty amot high. Of
course, we can explain to students what an amah is, calculate the
height, and draw the sukkah on the board.

But I wanted the student not only to hear a number, but to understand
the relationship between the sukkah's height and its width.

So I built a model of a sukkah: a tall, narrow model that demonstrates
the proportions between a sukkah twenty amot high and an area of four
amot by four amot.

When a child sees the model in front of him, what had previously been an
abstract number takes on a concrete form.

Twenty amot is no longer just "a very large number."

He can see the height.

He can see the width.

And when we continue learning the different sukkah configurations
discussed in the sugya, he already has a concrete image on which to
build his understanding.

Sometimes Even a Drawing Is Not Enough

A drawing is a very valuable teaching tool, but in my experience, there
are times when a physical model is more effective.

To understand a drawing, a child still has to make a mental translation:
he needs to understand how a two-dimensional sketch represents a real
three-dimensional object.

When he sees a model, part of that work has already been done for him.

He can look at it from different angles, see the proportions, and
quickly understand something that might otherwise require a much longer
explanation.

This does not mean that every sugya needs a model. Very often, a simple
drawing is more than enough.

But when understanding the physical reality itself is part of the
difficulty of the sugya, a tangible demonstration can greatly shorten
the path to understanding.

What Do Four Amot Look Like to a Child?

Another example comes from learning Perek Elu Metziot.

The concept of "four amot" is familiar to anyone who learns Gemara, but
a child at the beginning of his learning may not have an intuitive sense
of the area being discussed.

For that purpose, I prepared a surface representing four amot by four
amot, together with a figure of a person drawn to the appropriate scale.

Suddenly, four amot are no longer just two words that the teacher
translated.

They have a size.

They can be seen.

The child can understand their proportions relative to the person
standing within them.

From there, we can continue into the details of the sugya once the
student already understands the physical reality the Gemara is
discussing.

Wheat and Sesame Seeds: Understanding the Logic Through Reality

The same approach can be used to demonstrate things that are much
smaller.

When learning about wheat kernels compared with sesame seeds, I brought
the actual grains for the students to see.

The children could immediately see the difference.

Sesame seeds are smaller and more difficult to gather, while their value
is also different.

Once the physical reality is in front of the child, the Gemara's
discussion is no longer taking place in a vacuum.

He understands what the Gemara is talking about.

And once the reality is clear, it becomes easier to move to the next
stage: understanding what the Gemara is saying about it.

The Demonstration Is Not the Goal

It is important to emphasize that I do not see demonstrations as a
substitute for learning Gemara.

Ultimately, a student needs to be able to read the language of the
Gemara, understand the words, follow the flow of the sugya, and learn
independently.

The model does not do that work for him.

Its purpose is to remove an obstacle that does not need to be there.

If a child does not understand what four amot are, we want to help him
understand four amot.

Once the physical reality is clear, we can return to what truly matters:
the Gemara itself.

This is also one of the principles that guides the learning approach at
Yeshivas Erev.

We try to identify what is preventing a student from understanding.
Sometimes it is the Aramaic vocabulary, sometimes the reading, sometimes
insufficient review, and sometimes it is simply a physical reality that
the student cannot yet picture in his mind.

In each case, the goal is not to make Gemara easier by giving up part of
the learning.

Quite the opposite.

The goal is to give the child the tools that will allow him to approach
the Gemara itself, understand it, and gradually learn it on his own.

When the Gemara Becomes Tangible

One of the beautiful things about teaching children is seeing the moment
when a concept that was unclear suddenly becomes simple.

Sometimes it happens after an explanation.

Sometimes after another review.

And sometimes---after the child simply sees, right in front of him, the
thing the Gemara is discussing.

Whenever an abstract concept can be made tangible and clear, it is worth
doing so.

The more we remove difficulties that are not essential to the sugya
itself, the more the student can direct his energy toward the place we
truly want to bring him:

to understand the words of the Gemara, connect with the learning, and,
with Hashem's help, eventually know how to learn on his own.

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