Now that I have retired, I have more time to learn, Baruch HaShem. I have kept my schedule the same, except now I go to kollel in the morning with my backpack, instead of to work. They say (you know, them...) that preparing a schedule of goals and activities is probably more important than the financial preparation. With rabbinic counsel, I have added the following to my daily seder: gemara, halacha, navi. For gemara, I have gone back to the beginning and am learning masechta Brachos with Rashi and the Rosh. For halacha, I am learning meat and milk. For navi, Yeshayahu. I figured with eight-ish more hours a day, I would just be sailing through. Not quite.
I have, of course, learned gemara for some time. This is just review, right? No... This time I have two new aims. First, not only understand what the gemara is saying according to Rashi, but also working on why Rashi chose that way to explain the gemara; that is, to learn Rashi as a rishon as well as using him as a mentor. The Rosh highlights the halachically and philosophically important conclusions. Here's an example of the latter.
Chazal (Brachos 33b) contrast two baraisos in the context of the שליח ציבור/prayer leader davening; one says that a person who repeats is disgraceful, the other says take him down and get someone else to lead davening. (Remember, in those days there were no siddurim, so the שליח ציבור/prayer leader was actually being the agent or the congregation and enabling them to fulfill their obligation. The gemara resolves the apparent contradiction by adding context: If he repeats words, that's just disgraceful; but if he repeats a whole verse, then take him down. Rashi explains that repeating words just turns t'filah into a joking/light-headed activity; which is disgraceful. Repeating verses, though, looks like he is praising/accepting two different gods and he is speaking to each one separately. That one you take down.
The Rosh says that is why we say the verse of שמע ישראל (which Google Translate translates as "Shema Yisrael" ☺) only once at the conclusion of Yom Kippur. The statement of ...ברוך שם כבוד is not a verse, so no worries about repeating. The verse of ה' הוא האלוקים is a verse, but the prophet repeats it himself, so that is ok.
Now let's put Rashi and the Rosh together. At the end of Yom Kippur -- the one day of the year where the Yetzer HaRa has no authority and is off duty -- after 25 hours of fasting, 10 confessional services, prayers and supplications for t'shuva and forgiveness, all of which comes on the heels of the 10 days of repentance.... After all that, we are worried that someone might have fleeting thought of avoda zara while saying שמע ישראל ה' אלוקינו, ה' אחד! Why?
Because the Yetzer HaRa is now back on duty and he takes his job very seriously. Don't blink.
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