Removing The Mask
Many people are going to be wearing masks ["masecha"] on Purim. A Gemara is also a mask. Masechta. That means a mask. What is a masechta masking?
When you learn a mesechta superficially it can seem deceptively simple. People attend shiurim where they learn two sides of a page in 25 minutes. Easy. But when you go deeper you see that there is SO MUCH there. In Yeshivos and Kollel's worldwide people spend days on one line of a Gemara. So a Masechta is "masking" infinite depth and profundity. Tens of millions of hours have been spent learning Shas and yet as I type people are discovering and uncovering new insights that nobody has seen before.
A Masechta masks something else. When Rav Soloveitchik taught his students Masechta Baitza he quoted the Arizal: Beitzah = Bei [in it] Tzur Haolamim [The Rock of The World]. Hashem is hiding in the Masechta [See Tanya ch. 4-5]. Our job is to remove the mask.
When you learn a mesechta superficially it can seem deceptively simple. People attend shiurim where they learn two sides of a page in 25 minutes. Easy. But when you go deeper you see that there is SO MUCH there. In Yeshivos and Kollel's worldwide people spend days on one line of a Gemara. So a Masechta is "masking" infinite depth and profundity. Tens of millions of hours have been spent learning Shas and yet as I type people are discovering and uncovering new insights that nobody has seen before.
A Masechta masks something else. When Rav Soloveitchik taught his students Masechta Baitza he quoted the Arizal: Beitzah = Bei [in it] Tzur Haolamim [The Rock of The World]. Hashem is hiding in the Masechta [See Tanya ch. 4-5]. Our job is to remove the mask.
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