Shas Illuminated – A Disappointment

Last year at about this time I welcomed and even lauded a new project called Shas Illuminated. It featured a list of distinguished Talmidei Chachamim (one of whom was my own son) that gave what can be described as Iyun Kal.  It was designed to accompany and enhance the daily Daf Yomi Shiurm  with the primary Rishonim and Achronim on the Daf. I used to frequent them daily.

But not all the Shiurim were alike. After listening to a few Shiurim – all of which made obvious the high level of knowledge of its contributing Talmidei Chacham who were the Magidei Shiur, I noticed that in some cases the language spoken was something called Yeshivish.

I wrote about it at the time. I have no personal problem with this ‘language’ (perhaps dialect is a better term). I have a Yeshiva background. But Yeshivish is not really English. Too many of the words used are either Hebrew, Yiddish, or Aramaic. Some are familiar to most Jews no matter what the background. But others are not. That makes understanding these Shiurim more difficult for the uninitiated.

After speaking to one of the founders of this website and complaining about it, he assured me that he understood and wanted to correct that problem so as to make it more widely accessible. But the opposite has happened. I communicated with him about this via e-mail and he explained that this type of Shiur is what Shas Illuminated listeners are more interested in. I am truly disappointed. I listened to the Shiur given on the opening of the current Perek in Pesachim (Tamid Nishchat) that deals with the Pascal sacrifice, and it was about as Yeshivish at it gets.  It is almost like the original goal to be as inclusive as possible has been changed to be as exclusive as possible.

I am deeply disappointed in this new track they are following away from communicating Torah in as clear a fashion as possible so that the maximum number of people can benefit from it. I therefore no longer recommend Shas Illuminated. I instead recommend the OU website’s Daf Yomi Shiur given by Rabbi Moshe Elefant. He not only reviews the entire daily Daf but references many of the Rishonim and Achronim on the topics discussed in that Daf. And he speaks in clear English with only a smattering of common terms in Yeshivish - that most every Jew can understand. This is what I plan on doing in the future.