Thread by @shevereshtus

Since "Talmud" is trending, here's something most of those involved in this have no idea about:

When people say it takes 7 1/2 years to complete it if you learn for an hour and a half to two hours every single day without break, they are only talk about a third of a page.

Really, you will only be covering the Pink (Mishnah), Yellow (Gemara) and Rashi (Blue), especially if it's your first time. The hardest part of the Gemara, that people take years to master, is the green part and not covered in that cycle

7 1/2 years at 2 hours a day = easy mode

To find someone who has completed the entire Talmud with each and every single Tosfot (the Green section) is very rare.

To find someone who has completed the entire Talmud with every Tosfot and understood all of them? Even more rare.

Rashi & Tosfot are not available in English.

So really even if you were to read the translated sections of the Talmud in English, you would only be reading a sixth of the page at best.

That's how little material there is available in English. And that material (granted, some Rashi quoted), takes 73 volumes in English:

And if you think that going through all 73 volumes and reading/understanding all of it is impressive, you're not wrong, but you have to understand that in serious learning circles, it won't even be considered like you've genuinely completed the Talmud once, for the most part.

People will respect your accomplishment, but it won't be what they have in mind when it comes to someone saying that 'they completed Shas.'

Even if someone just did Gemara and Rashi, it will be applauded, but it won't be considered a marvelous feat that is unattainable.

And even if you were to finish everything that's on the page, taking 4-5 hours a day over seven years to truly understand every Rashi and Tosfot in the original language, it won't even begin to crack real scholarship that also involves the commentaries at the back of the Gemara.

In conclusion:

When you hear someone who says they 'know what the Talmud says,' most likely they don't even know what the Talmud is.

@Dracones24601 Ultimately what matters the most is that a Jew follows Jewish law properly, even if he doesn’t know why the law was formulated that way.

Now of course it’s important to know these things, and will greatly improve your personal relationship with G-d and mitsvot if you learn them

@Dracones24601 However, at the end of the day, it’s pointless for you to know why this road is restricted to 35 mph when you are yourself driving at 80 on it.

That’s why doing is ultimately more important than knowing, and why it’s perfectly fine to do without knowing and relying on Judges etc

@Dracones24601 This is in fact the very system put in place by Moshe based on his father-in-law’s advice in Exodus and detailed in Deuteronomy.