Longing for High School? Well, Not Quite...

Since I've been back from Israel (two years already!) and have been in a high-pressure, secular environment, my learning has been very different.

I do still maintain chavrusot/s on a semi-regular basis, and I love maintaining them and learning with the various people I learn with and keeping that bit of Torah in my life. But I really only learn in English now and generally learn either halacha or some sort of philosophical/mussar type sefer. I do that because I feel if I don't have that much time to learn, I want to get the most out of my learning. And if that means learning in English so as not to spend half the time breaking my teeth over Hebrew I don't quite understand, then it's worth it. And if that means learning what I will either get the most inspiration from or the most practical useful knowledge from, then that is what I'm going to do.

I mention this because today I was helping my sister with her Chumash paper. So we were learning Hebrew mepharshim in Chumash (hence the fact that it is called a Chumash paper...) and I really enjoyed it. I kind of forgot how enjoyable it is to learn like that. (I guess you never realize how good you had it till it's gone, or "I believe you don't know what you've got until you say goodbye," v'hamayvin ya'vin.)

I certainly never thought I'd say this when I was in high school, but I really do miss that learning. I miss spending half a day studying limudei kodesh, writing papers on the shvatim instead of tyranny of the majority, struggling over Hebrew instead of Nietzche. I miss it. (Not enough to have any interest in going back to high school, mind you. I'm not that crazy.)