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I'm sure there are many different ways to become a talmid chochom, and I'm also sure that what it took to become one 1,000 years ago is different than what it would take today. Furthermore I am leaving the term talmid chochom as undefined because it necessarily means different things to different people.

What I would like to know is if there is any regiment that is prescribed for someone nowadays that has been shown to frequently, successfully produce talmidei chochomim and if so what does it consist of?

mevaqesh
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    See our page on exactly that: https://judaism.stackexchange.com/triedandtrueformulaforbecomingatalmudchochom – Double AA Dec 21 '17 at 21:42
  • https://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/31201/2 – Isaac Moses Dec 21 '17 at 21:43
  • There is really only one way and that is to have a good teacher. I dont think any talmid chochom was ever self taught. It is only once you know how to learn that you can use seforim to teach you further. – patient Dec 21 '17 at 21:56
  • Is this overly "broad" esp. since there is a vast definition of "Talmid Chacham"? – DanF Dec 21 '17 at 22:17
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    "I am leaving the term talmid chochom as undefined because it necessarily means different things to different people." Yet you ask how to become one! How is this answerable? Would "Do increasingly many push-ups a day" be a valid answer? If not, why not? – msh210 Dec 21 '17 at 22:29
  • @DoubleAA are you hinting (by your link) that there is no answer – hazoriz Dec 22 '17 at 00:30
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    @hazoriz no, look at the quote on the right of the page. At least I think that's the intention. – Heshy Dec 22 '17 at 01:08
  • @Heshy thank you, the mobile site does not have it – hazoriz Dec 22 '17 at 01:11
  • @patient I don't think this is true - R Elyashiv is well known for having studied alone most of his life - I believe this is also true for the Lubavitcher Rebbe - and I'm sure plenty of others – mbloch Dec 22 '17 at 04:51
  • @mbloch I think That R Elyashiv learned kabolo with is grandfather the leshem. I did not say that one cannot study alone. I said that one has first to learn from a good teacher. I have a lot more to say on this subject. For a start the yeshivot do not have trained teachers, this doesnt do the talmidim any good however great they are. There is only one type of talmid chochom, one who knows how to learn which very few do. – patient Dec 22 '17 at 09:30
  • Of course everyone learned with someone at some point. I was reacting when you wrote "There is really only one way and that is to have a good teacher" - I don't think R Eliashiv became who he is because of his teachers - at least not beyond the years of his youth - the next 60+ years were spent learning alone. Similar for the Lubbavitcher Rebbe. – mbloch Dec 22 '17 at 09:31
  • @mbloch I beg to differ. Most people never had a good teacher as I wrote in my comment that yeshivot unlike universities dont provide trained teachers. This is a major fault in the Jewish world. There is a learning curve which most do not master. See my further comment. – patient Dec 22 '17 at 09:42
  • @patient I don't know "most people" so I can't judge if they had good teachers or not. I also know only a few yeshivot (who have great teachers) so I can't speak of all yeshivot either. I just know of a number of gedolim who learned without teachers. – mbloch Dec 22 '17 at 14:05
  • I would recommend reading "One minute Masmid" by Rabbi Jonathan Rietti he has a very good methodology for growing in learning – TrustMeI'mARabbi Dec 22 '17 at 18:37
  • Rabbi Yosef caro says that one must know seder moed and seder Nashim in side out in order to be considered a Talmid chocham – yosef lavi Jan 01 '19 at 18:44

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I recall the answer to How do you get to Carnegie Hall?. The answer is practice practice practice. Similarly one needs to constantly study Torah and always review what one has learned with both a chacham as a teacher and a good chavrusa. Many chachamim are said to have made a siyum by learning during five minute breaks such as during a mi shebeirach or while waiting to be called up at a chasuna.

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  • Practice will get you nowhere if you dont know how to learn. Unlike secular studies there doesnt seem to be any good Jewish books on how to learn. So one must have a good teacher. Also one has to know the language well. There ought to be a list of easy gemoros. One should do writing as much as possible, but one must also learn how to write summaries of gemoros. The artscroll way isnt always the best. – patient Dec 22 '17 at 09:36
  • One also has to learn to be medayek properly. For instance above I wrote one has to have a good teacher. Someone understood that meant for his whole life. That is not the way to be medayek if it was a gemoro – patient Dec 22 '17 at 11:43